The Brilliant Child Artist

When the child we believe to be our last (and since he's now six years old, that's most likely to be the case...) was younger, he was a screamer. Before he could speak, our youngest son screamed.

To some people, I suppose, screaming could be considered a talent and my son was blessed with a very effective delivery system to proclaim that talent to the world--no hiding his voice under a bushel, that's for sure. In fact, my son could scream so loud that my neighbor two houses down once heard our youngest screaming inside our house when he was outside of his.

One day my wife had an idea and that idea involved art. The older kids liked to draw, but I don't believe we let the youngest. But something amazing happened when we put a piece of paper and some crayons in front of our screaming child. He stopped screaming and began to draw. And not only did he draw, but he drew very well (of course, a parent's opinion of anything their own child does is biased in the extreme, and I am no exception...). The above picture was drawn with colored pencils when my son was about two years old and I love it.

We decided to nurture our son's incredible ability so we bought the easel at Christmas and paints when we could find them. But as our son grew, his desire to draw diminished. I think since he could express himself through words, he no longer needed to draw. It's a shame, but it's his decision. Maybe one day he'll pick it up again and take a simple crayon in his hand and create another masterpiece. I guess we'll see...