Custom Bags

My 11 year old artist has discovered a new passion this week. Every spare moment she finds, she is taping, pasting, and drawing to create specialty bags for her friends.




It started with our Writing lesson from Writeshop Junior. The girls both wrote letters to their cousin and we learned about proofreading. Writeshop recommends creating an Editor's Bag to hold the tools they'll need for a fun editing session. This includes highlighters, colored pencils, stickers, and a ring to wear on the pointer finger. My boys would have rolled their eyes out of their heads at this age, but the girls eat it up.

The Editor's Bag inspired other custom designs. She created an Underwater Bag for her friend who wants to be a marine biologist, a Star Bag for the friend who loves astronomy, and a dozen others.

I confess, I too rolled my eyes when I read the lesson. But I read the option to them to gauge their reaction and they were over the moon. Lesson learned for me. Just because it's not my cuppa doesn't mean it isn't a great tool for learning. The girls are excited about correcting their work, thanks to their editor's bag.

I also confess that it mildly concerns me that they can't see through it. Their brothers would say, "Fancy editor's hat and stickers don't change the fact that we have to rewrite our whole paper." But we're a skeptical lot and the girls have somehow been shielded from that line of thinking. They are prone to find joy where joy can be found and I'm thankful for that.

I'm very proud to have been presented with a Mama's bag. It includes chocolate, bandaids, a manual, magic powder, hair stuff, and money.

I asked about the validity of the currency and she assured me it covers the cost of shoulder rubs and dish washing. She said that once paid to a child, the currency is then good for buying cocoa and gum. It's a nice cycle.