Robot and Keys

In a recent report on NPR, I heard that in terms of personality, siblings are only alike 20% of the time, which is close to the likeness a person might have with a complete stranger. It has been fascinating to me to watch Grant and Alia develop their own, unique personalities, and one area where they are different is their attitude towards art. Alia doesn't dislike art, but she never seems to get that into it. When she was little, she would hold crayons and draw a line or two but then be bored. Grant, on the other hand would sit and make intricate swirls of circles for at least 15 minutes. When we go to pick Alia up from school she often has artwork, and it's hilarious to see hers compared to her classmates. They decorate letters all the time, and her classmates will have rainbow hued letters studded with buttons on every square inch of paper, and Alia's letter will have one squiggle of pink on it. Grant, of course, isn't in preschool yet, but I can't wait to see the art projects he comes home with. Here I have a picture of a robot that Grant drew and a picture of keys that Alia drew. To me, it seems that Grant's artwork is already similar to Alia's. Alia really only gets into her artwork when she has a story to tell about it. The other day, for example, I had some stickers of Christmas trees for her, but I told her I wanted her to draw a picture of where they lived first. She drew a picture of "The Nighttime Forest" telling a whole story while she was drawing about how the stars lit up the sky in the nighttime forest so no one had to be scared, and how the Christmas Trees were born when a piece of light fell to earth. She also loves to write and pretend to write. Lately she always wants to make lists of what to get people for Christmas.