All week long we held "Fashion Camp" at our corporate offices or what we dub "the Playground". So for a week, I have been driving 3 little girls into work everyday. Each day they chit chat in the back of the car as I drive, I secretly smile at their conversations. So amusing to get a glimpse into their sweet little lives and how they think. One conversation went like this "oh yeah, we did hip hop at our school too" "oh was the teacher the guy that had the earring and looked like a gangster" "what's a gangster?" "Oh someone who tells lots of jokes" "no, thats a prankster" "oh, same thing, whatever"?..
Smile....
The next day, the conversation started something like this. "Oh I watched that on Netflix" "oh you have Netflix" "ya and Apple tv", "oh your lucky" "oh my friend has nine t.v's in their house", "oh really, so and so has 5 computers", "ya I have a DS, and my Mom has and Ipad, so does my Dad, Plus an Iphone and my brother has an IPod touch....."
You see where I am going with this...
This is the generation they live in....this is what they know. It's happening. Period.
As we were arriving at Fashion Camp their minds shifted from the conversation and they could barely contain their excitement for the events that were to take place over the next four days.
And for the next 4 days, I watch ten girls, ages ranging from 5-12, completely engaged, sharing, helping, behaving, listening....creating.
Not one of them required to be talked to, there was no negotiating, no acting out, no rambunctiousness.
Now if you have been in a room with 10 kids for hours on end you can understand that the above is typically rare. There is always some sort of "intervention" that has to happen. After all, they are kids.
What moved me is that given the opportunity to create at their own free will, to not have rules, to not have boundaries, or methods, or guidelines, given space and time, they could immerse themselves completely in their projects, and create, assemble, invent, make...
They recycled clothing into new and interesting designs, they designed, bedazzled, sketched and rejoiced in each others neat ideas and offered up other perspectives.
A typical struggle in our house is trying to get our daughter to focus and do her homework. A daily struggle. Not once in this environment was there a negotiation.
It truly felt freeing. We were now speaking a language she understood, she was in her element and she was learning without even knowing it.
Now, I understand - I just have to learn her language and continue to speak it.
Clearly just playing for four days was the local tongue, without the 9 t.v.'s....
