Drawing inspiration from Grandparents

 The kids are lucky to have both sets of Grandparents and two Great Grandmothers too, which is a lot of lovely people looking out for things that they will enjoy.  At Christmas, for example, my folks got the boys the Beano and the Dandy annuals, which fired their enthusiasm for comics.  Then last week their nearby Great Grandmother gave Ollie a cartoon drawing book she had found, which took the comic book appreciation to another level as Ollie realised he could use this when he makes his own books.

Ollie sat at Nan's table with a pencil and box of pastels happily copying images from the book, completely taking us by surprise in how patiently he worked away and how good a copy they were.  We had no idea he would be able to do this - there's always opportunities for making and doing at home, but I hadn't thought to ask him to try to copy something in this way since the 'how to draw dinosaurs' book I got him last year which he showed no interest in.

Very soon he was adding his own dialogue to the cartoons, as in this one where he took the initial image of what he decided was the Giant thinking about Jack (from Jack and the Beanstalk) and added in extras such as Jack hiding in a cupboard with a gold hen (a change from the goose that laid the golden egg).

Having other adults around in a child's life (family or friends) is really valuable for so many reasons, including inspiration for trying new things.  Some of those new things might even be quite old things that you enjoyed yourself as a child, such as the cheeky adventures of Dennis the Mennis.  We've certainly struck gold with these ideas for the kids, so a big thank you to the boys Grand- and Great Grandparents.