...hot-gluing fifty tiny pompoms to a piece of felt so your son can make his own American flag.

Kent is very interested in flags these days. It started with the American flag, which he used to go around saying was "for Obama," before I explained to him that it was for our country. I thought it was cute that he would say, "That flag is also for Obama!" every time he saw one, but at some point the kid needs to learn that we don't live in a monarchy or a tyranny where the flag is synonymous with the leader. So I explained the United States to him as best I could, and now he says, "That's the American flag for our country!" He's just *so* excited. I realized he was over-generalizing yesterday when we were watching The Sound of Music and he said that both the Austrian flag and the Nazi flag were American flags. Hmm. When I told him what the Nazi flag was (leaving out certain horrors of the Holocaust), he said he wanted it to be an American flag. Someday, he'll learn about VE Day and the end of WWII, and he'll be thrilled. R. Kent, Imperialist.

Anyway, I saw the need for him to understand that different flags mean different things, so we're going to be making a few flags out of felt. I think if I make all the pieces, and he puts them together while looking at a picture of the flag, it'll be both flag lesson and spatial/art perception lesson. I was thinking we'd start with the U.S., Ireland and France (where Jack and I spent time, respectively), and maybe Canada and Mexico, but dang, the Mexican flag is hard. I don't want to be all Arizonan and dismiss the Mexican flag, though. We'll have to find a way around that.

Lest you think I'm raising some kid with a heightened sense of international awareness, the main trick as I see it will be keeping him from pulling the fifty white pompoms off. Wish us luck.

Labels: being political, craftiness, Kent, photography

• posted by erica 5/13/2010 09:20:00 AM
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