Pencil and Paper “A New Discovery” (Ages 3-8)
They were once made of lead, but are now made of pure china clay, graphite, and cedar from 150 to 200-year-old-trees. Their companion, once made from linen and cotton rags, is now made of wood pulp. If I could provide only two material objects to my children, outside the basic necessities, it just might be pencil and paper.
For CHILDREN they can provide these five benefits:
- Entertainment
- Creation
- Learning
- Therapy
- Relaxation
PARENTS derive these five benefits as a byproduct:
- Pride
- Insight
- Solitude
- Interaction
- Observation
Gliding over the blank paper are the hand and pencil together, translating intangible imagination and thoughts into the tangible. The pencil acts as the voice of the movement, and paper the receiver, ostensibly making concrete what the mind intended. Nothing more pure, and pencil and paper require no setup or instruction, while their use offers no right and no wrong.
- My son is amused at the dog he has drawn. (ENTERTAINMENT.) Mom looks over his shoulder and is impressed that the picture is better proportioned and more defined than in his past drawings. (CREATION.) “That’s really neat, son. Let’s put it up on the wall.” (PRIDE.)
- Mom goes back to drinking her coffee. She takes a deep breath and becomes conscious of the birds chirping outside. (SOLITUDE.) Her attention turns again toward her son. She is touched by his quiet demeanor. (OBSERVATION.) He is serene and focused, with tongue out, seemingly to help guide his hand. (RELAXATION.)
- “Why don’t we practice your letters and numbers? (LEARNING.) We can play Hangman for letters and Dot-to-Dot for numbers. (INTERACTION.) When we’re done, we can do that game where I draw the squiggle and you make a picture from it.”
- “No, I want to finish this,” he exclaims. Mom observes a picture of an angry person. “Is that you with the scowl on your face?” (INSIGHT.)
- “I’m mad at Daddy for getting mad at me today,” he says while he broods. “Come here; let’s talk about it,” Mom comforts. (THERAPY.)
With the arrival of computers and electronic communication, pencil and paper may eventually vanish. Nevertheless, I’m optimistic that a future civilization will invent a device to assist in creating and communicating, one that’s easy to learn and operate, at nominal cost, which requires no electricity, and has 100 percent reliability. We can only hope after they rediscover pencil and paper, they won’t disappear again.
Rex Bowlby is the father of two boys. He is the author of the book, Why Would I Want the Toy, When I Can Have the Box? (101 Ways to Make the Most of Your Children, With the Least from Your Wallet*) *For parents with children ages 3-8. He lives in Los Angeles, California, USA.