Discussing and assembling the ship may have taken 15 minutes tops, but Belle was far from finished with her Mayflower. Apparently, she was not satisfied with the finished product. Everyone else left, but she stayed at the table and modified the ship for nearly 2 hours. Occasionally, she filled me in on the changes she was making. The vessel needed windows, doors, more flags, benches, a second level and Pilgrims.
Belle's enthusiasm was touching. Even though she still had not done her Math lesson, I let her design until she lost interest. I am no expert, but I feel like her brain worked a lot harder in those 2 hours of intense creative thought than if I had interrupted and forced her mind to switch gears. While she entertained herself and John slept, I got several loads of laundry folded and put away. After putting her completed Mayflower on the piano for display, we started Math. And guess what? She was in such good spirits, worksheet time was a breeze.
In addition to her Mayflower craft, she got the idea to make the Full Armor of God out of some of the extra paper towels. She said, "The Pilgrims were Christians, mom." Those are the kind of remarks that bring JOY to my heart.
