figuring it out

Nick had his first day at summer camp yesterday. It's a half day camp in a space that is, during the year, a progressive pre-school. He had a blast. I knew he would--one of his good friends goes there, and the friend's mom directs the camp. When I went to pick him up he stayed in the room with the other kids listening to the story, waiting for it to be finished before he would leave.

Last year he hated camp. He was in a school program that emphasized math. It met in a public school, and he spent much of the day in a classroom. It was a struggle leaving him almost every day, though by the end of every day he could report on fun things that he'd done, and the teacher told us he was doing well and participating. But the difference between that, last year, and this year's experience, is striking.

I asked him why he liked camp so much yesterday. He said, with joy lighting up his voice, 'There's an art room, Mom, where you can saw! And you can spend ALL DAY there if you want--except for snack, because we go outside for that." Later he mentioned "you can paint in the art room," and later still, 'you can play with clay in the art room." The director had told me, too, that he was allowed to spend as long as he wanted in the art room, doing what he liked. "Kids who aren't self-directed," she told me, "take a little time to get used to things here. But Nick jumped right in."

I've known for a while that art is likely to be Nick's "thing," as music is Mariah's. But suddenly it struck me how much it's his thing--it gives him pleasure, it feeds him, in the way that it does his dad. Well, no surprise there. But I know how to encourage a love of music (piano lessons, choir, access to tapes and cd's, buying a guitar...) much more than I know how to encourage a love of art. Nick asks to go to the museum, to go down to the basement to paint or draw or play with clay...we just need to keep making sure we hear those requests and respond.

It's so interesting watching kids develop, finding out who they are. And this seems to be Nick's summer for that.