I have three boys, ranging in age from elementary to junior high, and one of the things we have bonded over is our love to create. I expect that’s pretty normal—from blanket forts and LEGO creations to cardboard castles and Minecraft worlds, my boys and I love to create elaborate worlds together, telling stories to each other through the process.
If you have ever done any sort of creative project with little kids, you know they start out looking like a Jackson Pollock painting—colors and shapes going in every direction and a design that doesn’t seem to make sense. That can be fun to play around with, but as children mature it becomes more than simple play. At a certain point they might start to ask: Does the thing we are building work?
To figure that out, my sons and I have agreed on four principles:
- Does it fit the larger idea? (Dinosaur cavalry riding in spaceships might work in your world, but it goes pretty crazy pretty fast.)
- Does it interfere with the work someone else is already engaged in?
- Does it potentially damage or break something someone has already built?
- Does the design match the rest of the world?
If an idea passes those four tests, it is usually permitted. This creates a stunning level of freedom, and it tends to result in creations that last well past the end of playtime.
I see parallels between these four tests and the long-established principles in our work with HSLDA Action. In the same way I encourage my kids to create something worth preserving, HSLDA Action works to expand and preserve the freedom that my parents’ generation built with grit and perseverance.