Butterflies Everywhere

Appreciating creativity and not getting in its way

Now that R is starting to talk, we’re getting reminders of the boundless creativity of children. One of the ways that shows up is how he loves butterflies and starts screaming “titli”, the urdu word for butterflies where ever he sees them.

Well, it started off with what can be expected. He’s watching “Sim Sim Hamara” a Pakistani production of Sesame Street and in the intro sequence you have animated butterflies flying, and you share the excitement.

A screen capture of the opening credits of the show Sim Sim Hamara. It is a very good production and has been made available by the creators on Youtube.

Of course it goes beyond that. You go to the library and out of nowhere he’s screaming with joy, “titli, titli”. You look around confused and wow he’s right there are butterfly stickers on the wall. And it makes you realize just how common butterflies are as decoration.

But then he ups the game. Mom’s pony tail has two loops, “titli, titli”. I’ve knotted the wire together, and it again has two loops, “titli, titli”. The grape slices are joined together, “titli, titli”

A twisted pony tail, a knotted wire, two attached slices of grapes each meeting the basic criteria to be a butterfly of having at least two large flappy structures.

Now walk me through it. What did you just think? Confusion? A chuckle? A head shake? Think the wings are too long? Want to remind me that a butterfly has in fact four wings and not two? I know the feeling. And it is the despair of adulthood where we have absorbed too many things as right and wrong, and with that we are not able to see what can be. While really in our pasts we had such boundless creativity. The kind that makes the play of a toddler evocative of Pablo Picasso. No really, here are some artworks by Pablo Picasso

Two artworks of Pablo Picasso. On the left “The Bull” or “Le Taureau” taking the image of a bull and distilling it down it its most essential components till we are left with a few lines but we can clearly see the bull, its body, its head, horns, and legs. On the right is “Bull’s Head” or “Tête de taureau”, first displayed as “Bicycle Seat” consists of a bicycle saddle and handlebars welded together, quite obviously making the head of a bull.

And in identifying the two loops conjoined at on one end, R accurately distilled a butterfly down into its purest form.

Of course his creativity is not limited to butterflies. One day he started saying water and I confused started looking for where the water is spilled so i can cleanup. Confused not finding anything I look up to see R put his toy boats on his gel doodling toy. As I ask, “R, why are you putting your boats on” and then it hits me.

The blue and green of the ocean combined with the waves on the gel. It is obviously a sample removed from the ocean.

But when we think about what creativity is and how to improve it. Combining two different concepts to create a new idea is at the core of most creativity. So this creative ability children possess is easier when there are fewer existing patterns imprinted on your brain. But it is not just adulthood, because every time we teach them a new word, we are also teaching them not to be wrong. And there is nothing that kills creativity as much as the fear of being wrong. Instead how can you channel the conversation into a more positive way.

I definitely want you to check out the link below, it s a great and insightful reading on who you can use the Socratic method to prevent the formation of the right or wrong mindset.

Socratic teaching for kindergarteners? Can you even do that?

Now that you’re back from reading the link. I discovered the idea of actually working through using the Socratic Method was a lot harder than I thought with a child that is just starting to string words into sentences. But what about the other aspect. Making the child comfortable with the vast gray zone between correct and incorrect.

I tried an experiment on that and would love to hear what you think. Recently R pointed to one of his alphabet books that had U for Ukulele and V for Violin. As any reasonable person that does not know how to read he pointed to the ukulele and said, “Guitar, guitar”, then right next to it he pointed to the violin saying, “Guitar, guitar.”

A picture of the R’s book.

As an aside some guidelines for children’s alphabet books. The alphabets only have a value as a symbol for sounds. Please use words that kids would know, that have only one name, and that actually use the sound you want to show. I already have a copy of “P Is for Pterodactyl”.

So Guitar doesn’t exactly express the U and the V sound so I was tempted to correct it. But then I remembered to celebrate the connection that R was drawing between the guitar and the ukulele. And so started our music marathon of the various kinds of “guitars”. For starters we have the guitar you play with a stick. Funny enough, since my own introduction to violins was in alphabet picture books guitar you play with a stick is my earliest understanding of a violin.

Guitar you play with a stick also called a violin

Of course that is the “guitar you play with a stick”. How do you compare that with a “small guitar” called a ukulele. For that matter I need to note. People aren’t as interested in showing you someone playing a ukulele as other stringed instruments. But we made do and listened to the melodious voice and music by IZ,

Small guitar otherwise called a ukulele

After a little back and forth trying to compare the sound made by the small guitar and the stick guitar, or what I realized should more appropriately be called a small stick guitar. So we pull up Joshua Bell for more stick guitar.

More small stick guitar although there were a lot of small stick guitars but to add to our confusion there are also some big stick guitars.

By this time R was completely into and started playing along with two wooden spoons. When I realized I had a need to represent. And so we went to the Pakistani guitar. Also called the sitar.

Pakistani guitar otherwise called the sitar

Now we’ve seen three kinds of “guitars” so I thought it would be important to actually show a guitar. I don’t know why but the most reasonable video that came out was for an electric guitar otherwise known as an electric guitar.

Electric guitar otherwise called the electric guitar or just guitar

Which was a very I don’t know what I pulled up moment and so I went on to what we were looking for. And had to find a guitar guitar otherwise known as an acoustic guitar.

Guitar guitar also known as acoustic guitar or just guitar

This song made me feel that I wasn’t being true to the sound of the musical instrument that I’m trying to capture since there is also some percussion work going on there. Looking back maybe I shouldn’t be too much of a puritan since I did call a violin a small stick guitar. Speaking of small stick guitars, we have to go back to the big stick guitars otherwise called cello.

Big stick guitar otherwise known as cello

And so we watch the big stick guitar. Which was a lot of fun, until it started to get too much fun. So much so that we had move on to the even bigger stick guitar otherwise known as a bass.

Now it might have been useful if I had any idea at all how to describe pitch to R so we could talk about the difference in the sounds of all of these guitars. But not having that option, and running out of types of “guitars”. I mean I could possibly do a harp but come on now, if Picasso were to distill a harp down to its essence would it look a guitar? I rest my case.

It was a fun exploration we did of guitars. And there is the question that comes to me. Raw creativity isn’t all that useful. You need to regulate it with the critic in you. And so while I taught R about the many types of “guitars” was I avoiding the hard work of learning to also be a critic. Maybe, but in the end we actually did pay attention on how the sound and operation of each instrument varies. And maybe as we’re having our ideas be silenced by our internal critic, we should first learn to see how “butterflies” are everywhere, and there are so many types of “guitars”. And maybe once we start by recognizing the similarity we will be able to recognize the differences for what they really are.