“Fold ‘em the Way They’re Bent!”

My oldest child’s nickname is “the one crayon kid”. From the time he was a toddler, his artwork consisted of grabbing the first crayon he touched and rubbing it quickly over a coloring page. 30 seconds later, he was done. Period! End of session!

Undeterred, I continued on a merry quest to get him to love arts and crafts. We colored. We drew. We painted. We sculpted. We designed. We visited art galleries. And, we repeated this year after year in our homeschool.

I was gonna make him L-O-V-E arts and crafts yet!

When he was about 11 years old, I woke up to the fact that while he had an appreciation for art, he would probably never enjoy creating his own. And you know what? It’s OK!

He has a definite analytical bent or gifting. He naturally gravitates towards solid, black and white, logical thinking. It is both his strength and his weakness. To express himself by creating a picture is illogical. He’d rather talk to you face to face or build a practical computer or contemplate your worldview.

Children are a lot like maps. You know the old school fold up ones that span an arms length? To be successful in bringing them to their full potential, you must fold them the way they are bent. Just like those old school maps, if you don’t follow the correct folds, you’ll never end up with a folded map made for its original purpose. You’ll just wind up with a crumbled mess.

So, while it’s good to expose your children to classical art and music, understand if it’s not their bent, they won’t become Mozart or Van Gogh. And that’s ok!

The same with math and sciences. By all means instruct a child who’d rather be creating, singing or dancing in the basics of math and science. But don’t demand they conquer Trigonometry and Advanced Physics. Not everyone is going to become a rocket scientist!

In your Homeschool, focus on your children’s bent and they will fold easily, excel and exalt their Creator with their gifting. Ignore that bent and you may have a crumbled mess on your hands!

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