When you give a boy a camera...and other life lessons.

I gave my 4-year-old my brand new Kodak Slice camera today (I can see my husband cringing now) and told him he had "an assignment".  He's been asking me to take photos so I thought I'd see what he came back with.  His assignment was "to take pictures of 5 things he loved most".  Standing in one place he said "That's easy...I love my firetrucks *click*, the TV *click*, my movies *click*, my trucks *click*, and that wall *click*...there...that's five things, right, Mommy?"

With that assignment in the books, I let his creativity take him where it lead.  Oh, the photos I got back on that camera were priceless (thank God for digital!).  He came back with nearly 100 photos and a story to tell about each of them.

"That's the laundry basket"

"That's me"

"That's me laughing"

"That's looking up my nose"

"That's the dog"

"That's Av's food"

"That's you, Mommy, peeking in on me in the cupboard" 

"That's the inside of the cupboard"

"Elmo is smiling"

"That's Alex sleeping"

"That's my bed" (floor, closet, TV, carpet, curtain, couch cushion...you get the picture)

A couple shots were actually pretty good, for a 4-year-old.  Most of them didn't make a lot of sense and many more of them lacked focus, subject, and pretty much all the photographic requirements necessary to make a decent picture, but he's FOUR.

For 10 (or 15 or 20)-minutes I got to see through the eyes of my child.  He took photos of what was important to him (or what just happened to be nearby and/or standing still) but it was teaching him something each time he'd snap a photo, look to see what he captured, and smile...and I got to "tag along" for the ride through his photos.

Needless to say, I deleted most of them except the few that I've shared here, but the lessons learned are priceless.  Was it the best idea to let my 4-year-old play with my brand new camera, maybe not...but he took very good care of it, and I would do it again in a heart beat.  Only maybe before that time I should figure out what I did with that old Kodak point and shoot I had kicking around before the big move...you know, just to be safe!?