cellini's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Vivaldi Day Yesterday I bought Ida a little toy bow and arrows. With suction cups on the ends of the arrows. She's been asking for this for the last 4 months or so and I probably should have gotten for her ages ago. She did finally manage to shoot an arrow properly after a lot of work. We'll practice some more today, I'm sure. It's a lot of coordination for a 4 year old to master. If she masters the basic skills of holding the bow and arrow properly and releases the arrow the right way, then I will consider getting her something a little bit better. This set up is pure toy and has so little power that no kind of accuracy is possible. If she does manage to get the basic skills together and doesn't lose interest then I would imagine that she could be hot shit as an archer by the time she's 10. Starting at 4 years old while her brain is still developing, I think she would develop better abilities to gauge spatial relationships and track moving objects. I've read a lot about the effect of early training in music having a physically discernible effect on neurological development. Which is why we worked on rhythm and listened to so much jazz when she was a baby. Now I don't know for a fact that the same thing can be done in support of neurological processes involved in spatial reasoning (or whatever you want to call it). But I bet that this is the case. I think that if you start a kid on archery at 4 years old, she will grow up to be extremely good at things like sports, shooting, driving, hunting and anything else that involves rapidly judging the changing relationships between multiple objects in space and coordinating one's body accordingly. She'd be unstoppable at Quidditch. It's an advantage that I think would be especially useful for her as an older kid and as an adult. She is on the small side and I doubt that she'll be taller than 5' 4" when she's fully grown. Physically, she will not be able to compete with boys or a lot of other girls at any activity where height, strength or size are key. There's nothing I can do about that. But I can give her this mental advantage that will allow her to out-shoot anyone else. Anything where coordination of the body with a moving object is key, she can have an edge. Maybe games like pool as well. This is a very nice day outside right now. Sunny. It is officially the first day of spring! Although in truth, spring began here weeks ago. Even the slowest of deciduous hardwoods is showing swollen branch tips. In 2 weeks the lower parts of the mountains will have a green haze across them. It will be lovely. I see mountains nearly everywhere here. I couldn't imagine living somewhere totally flat. We have mountain views on our land. My brother lives on the side of a mountain. It is good to have mountains around because they represent a nearby frontier. If they are steep in most places, then very little will be built on them. No matter how much development happens, they will be a place where you can bolt off to at a moments notice and in half an hour find yourself in total seclusion with rather nice views. Today I should have dug up my CD of Vivaldi's 'Four Seasons' before coming to work. I usually play the spring bit on the first day of spring. We used to play that on the turntable when I was very small. When I think of the first day of spring, the theme to the spring movement of the Four Seasons instantly runs through my head. 10:53 - 2008-03-20 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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