Inspiration

"Imagination is more important than knowledge."

~Albert Einstein~

It began when Tom went to chop up a fallen tree in the backwoods. Grace and Xander decided to work on their 'Civilization'. Grace had conceived an idea about building houses while waiting for Xander during his Mandarin chinese class and wanted to test those out. Their original structures were built of short sticks of wood, placed at right angles to form -- in Grace's case -- squares or -- in Xander's case -- rectangles.  Looking at Grace's 'tee pee', Xander remarked, "I don't think it is quite big enough." 

"It is big enough to sit in." She replied firmly and that was that.

Tom had been chopping the tree into long lengths and the children spotted this. They asked if they could use some for their civilization. When they explained their project, he helped them create the skeleton of a Tee Pee.

The kids considered the Tee Pee and decided it needed something... FURNITURE! Xander built himself a table and came in to get 'supplies'. When he returned, he discovered that Grace had decided that his table needed a chair and she was building one for him.

Xander sat down to test the chair and was pleased with the result.

Meanwhile, the two older boys, who had been working on Minecraft, took a breather and noticed what was going on outside...

"Can we do this too?" they asked their sibs.

"Of course! We can build a village!"

Building the Tee Pees became a communal event as some of the originals collapsed. The reconstructed ones involved several children and new ideas about how to add stability to the structures -- including the idea of tying the three main sticks at the top.

Covering the Tee Pees became an occasion for trade: Xander discovered a stash of 'waste cloth' -- the other kids wanted to use some for their Tee Pees, so they began trading objects that they thought valuable. In some cases, a person had nothing to trade and it was decided that cloth could be donated.

There was a lot of laughter and comradeship in this impromptu project. And the children were still talking about their village (which by group consensus they decided to name 'Village') on their way to the Halloween Pony and Costume party.

This morning, first thing, the boys checked their Tee Pees. Despite a night of wind and rain, the Village is still standing.