On Painting with Verbs

I was recently listening to Andrew Pudewa's talk on Teaching Boys and Other Children Who Would Rather Make Forts All Day and I found myself laughing out loud and nodding vigorously in agreement.

Boys and girls are different.  They think differently.  They learn differently.   They create differently.

Take for example this painting:

It began simply enough.  David announced that he was going to paint a red boat.  Then he added waves (those squiggly lines at the bottom) complete with white caps and a beautiful sun up top.  I was so proud!  Look at all those lovely details!

Then things took a bit of a turn.  Apparently when my son paints, he doesn't paint in adjectives--he paints in verbs.  He paints a story.

Unfortunately for his boat, a storm rolled in and clouds covered the sun.  Then there was some lightning followed by torrential rain, and soon there was nothing left to be seen of that little boat.  He did assure me though, that the sailors on board were able to locate the treasure they were searching for right under that red "x" at the bottom of the painting, so.....that was a relief.

Is this the prettiest painting I've ever seen?  Umm.....no.....but it sure does have a lot of action hidden in it and it was so fun to watch his process unfold and listen to his story as he painted that I wouldn't dream of intervening and making suggestions to attempt to make it "better."  

If you have a little time and three dollars I would highly recommend listening to the lecture.  I learned a lot of things I had never heard before about gender differences (which is crazy since I have degrees in both Elementary Education and School Psychology), and the research he quotes seems very sound.   Also, he presents some really good information about motivating children in general that would be beneficial to parents of boys and girls alike.  And, as if that weren't enough, there's an accompanying book list geared toward boys (including resources for their parents/teachers) organized by grade level--because that's what I need in my life, more book lists.

Let me know if you listen to it or have already heard it before!  I'd love to hear your thoughts :)