Leggo my Lego

How do you sort out a bucket of the miscellaneous? 

Teaching children to sort Legos is quite the challenge.  Information architecture is not easy such as is an orange a fruit or a color or both?

Out of context a six dot block is also brown and a rectangle is not round but how it is used makes one question what bin it goes in.

What cup do you put an eight spot green block or a one dot yellow block? Is it one level, two or three?  Is it one row wide and tall or a flat 3x3 to plant a tree?  How can we create a city?

What do we do with the firemen, tires, horses and waterslides?  What happens when the instructions ask for a missing piece? Can we work as a team to be at peace?

Can Dad create an XML vocabulary for Lego parts from which he could use an XSLT process to make perceptions align?  In this context that might be benign.  No schema to be found here.  It would be too rigid and the lego room in the basement is too frigid for me to create and relate. 

If I invest in a robot kit when they can build a "Penrose Staircase" would they be at their best?  Will they get any rest? Maybe we just dig in and have fun looking for that elusive bowl shape thing that finishes off the cafe next to the castle with an outhouse nearby so the astronaut has a space to pee.  That would be fine with me.

Sometimes being a Dad is just about the simple things.

Five steps for a single Dad to have a perfect Super Bowl Sunday.

With the "Big Game" behind us Clan DeFino had a busy day:

1.  Church  (Awesome Service) Casual dress, non-denominational, everyone is welcome. Pastor Bill is energetic, intelligent and inspiring. With a full band setup on stage as a backdrop and good energetic performance afterward, a coffee kiosk and rooms for the children to run around like a mosh pit.  Church is fun when you feel better after the service than when you walked in. The name is "The Rock Church" and there may be one near you.

In my own words; from the lesson I contemplated identity.  How do we identify ourselves?  Forgiveness of past mistakes and the ability to become new really is a human survival necessity. The ability to see ourselves differently allows us to grow and progress.  There are many variations of this with different canvases from which to work from.  In my case one is being a Dad.  When I saw the crown of their heads, when I hear the sound of their soft voices just asking "Why Daddy?". That question might be an inquiry about why old strawberries grow mold or how an airplane flies. When they run across the playground waving their arms in excitement because I am picking them up the little one is like a 47 pound bowling ball being thrown at my shins at full speed ahead.  I love it.


2.  Discovery Gateway - Kids museum.  I just sat back and watched them let their imaginations work.  This is more entertaining than any show on television except maybe "The Big Bang Theory"  They have mastered the puzzle exhibits by now and just like using their imagination with the foam building block room and the house with the grocery store that sells plastic pears.

They were too much of a blur to get a good picture.



3.  Lego destruction.  This is clearly a work in progress but it exercises their spacial recognition, teamwork, and they enjoy it.  Lots of pieces yes, but it is better than markers on the walls and cuts of paper all over the house.

The picture is not a great example. This is more like carnage after building something by the instructions then wanting to do something else. I get to observe their abstract imaginations as they develop scenarios and talk aloud about the characters they create.  Who would think that a cafe would have a flying horse visit while the prince talks to a monkey about computers?  These are the beginnings of the "Hacker Ethic" which is to understand how something works then make something cool happen.  They are exploring their minds through science, music and art. I enjoy this and do my best to give them the room to do so.

4.  Not finding a kid friendly Super Bowl party, we made our own and they insisted that Olaf be invited as a guest.  The kids had more fun watching me break out into a sweat from the "Diablo" mustard than the game so they kept making cracker sandwiches for me. They exceeded my limit and got their revenge for making them clean their room earlier in the day, which is like pushing waves back into the ocean. Their favorite recipe was a garlic pita bread, habanero mustard and pepper jack sandwich that had my eyes watering.  As I was recovering I received "Wet Willies" and the tickle monster had to defend himself.  This was our halftime show.

5. Then there was the end of the game where after hearing my lexicon of fake cuss words I was presented with a lecture about how I should not watch football but play legos instead.  I tried to explain how "This is freaking fun for me and darn it great googly moogly that was just a very ill advised call.  The sasafracken frickafracken coach should have ran Lynch and darn it to double hockey sticks the Patriots who I just do not care for would not have another ring."

They were not buying it.

Please....don’t get your kids involved in the arts.

Please don’t get your kids involved in the arts.  I know sometimes I can be a little sarcastic (just like Mount Kilimanjaro is a “little” hill) but, in this case, I mean it.  Please don’t get you kids involved in the arts.

Your son or daughter may have shown an affinity for singing or dancing or play acting when they were very young.  Most kids do.  And some – maybe many – want to foster those skills, to get better and create even more beautifully and skillfully.  But, please resist.

Here is why: Unless you are as committed to your child’s involvement in the arts as they are, the end result will be frustration.  You, frustrated, at being asked to inconvenience yourself on a Saturday morning to drive your child to an early rehearsal.  You, frustrated, when being asked to run lines or listen to a practice track or give feed back on some choreography.  You, frustrated, that an entire weekend is spent in a theater, instead of doing all the things important to you. You, frustrated, at being asked, again, to help build a set or mend costumes or organize props.

And your child, the child who may desperate love something that isn’t very important to you, will know.  He or she will understand that their love of the arts is trivial.  And they will know that they are the oddball for not loving baseball or soccer or hunting or hiking or antiquing or whatever it is that you know to be what kids should be doing.  And your child will know that if they perform, if they love the arts, that it will always be secondary to all the other important things.  And, even if you allow them to perform, the accomplishments in front of an audience will never be quite as significant as their siblings’ accomplishments on the playing field in front of a roaring crowd or the like.  And they will know that while they might want to be both an athlete and a performer, or a hunter and a performer, or statistician and a performer, that to the people who are important to them, the “and performer” part will always be just an add-on.

Please don’t allow your kids to get involved in the arts.  If not for you, then for me.  I cannot see one more child, with tears in their eyes, when they have to explain to their friends that their parents may not be able to make it to the performance.  They had dinner plans or needed to bring the car to the shop or something very important. 

Please explain to your kids how unrealistic it is to study the arts.  Please tell them it’s impossible to get hired into any real job involving the arts.  Please tell them that they need to study business or medicine or law or engineering and that none of those professions would ever rely upon the skills built in the arts – like creativity, public speaking ability, confidence, discipline, work ethic, ability to think clearly under pressure, or even the pure stamina it might take to be successful.  And, please, belittle the importance of “happiness” in your chosen field of employment.

Don’t allow your child to get involved in the arts because you’ll feel like you need to placate them with platitudes.  You’ll feel like you need to give compliments like “how great they were” or “how well they sang” or “how wonderful the dance” was.  But it’ll just be placating.  And your child will know.  And you’ll both walk away disappointed. 

Don’t allow your child to get involved in the arts.  Because, ultimately, years from now, they’ll find it on their own anyway.  And they’ll love it and know that it was where they should have been all along.  And they’ll grow and see life in different shades of color and, ultimately, they’ll be happy.  Happy to be a part of a world that they understand.  Happy to be in a community that supports them.  Happy to have opportunities to grow and learn and achieve and create.  Happy to not be reliant upon you for acceptance.

Please don’t allow your child to get involved in the arts.  You’ll be happier.  And that’s what really matters, right?