Adam's Art Spot : Flip-O-Ramas

I recently posted about Tony Buzan's book, Brain Child, and promised to share some more tidbits from it. Adam's Art Spot has given me the perfect opportunity to tell you a little about a brain principle called "mimicry" or good old-fashioned "copying". Tony Buzan has an interesting perspective on this and speaks of how "copying" has become associated with "cheating" and is therefore frowned upon. The brain, he says, "is designed to learn by copying" and "parents will notice that the baby is the the greatest 'copying' machine ever invented." Isn't that so true? Our babies copy everything we do... language, gestures, noises, expressions, actions...and they do it with "dazzling precision and accuracy".

I got to thinking about how we accept that a baby and tot will copy us and learn in the process, yet as our children grow older we can inadvertently discourage them from copying, for the reason cited above. Yet, this is surely the very best way to learn! So I am going to encourage Big One to "copy" and be inspired by art, books, TV, characters, ideas! Tony Buzan says to encourage copying and then to add one's own interpretation.

So how does this all tie in to Adam's Art Spot? Well, Adam has been bringing home Captain Underpants books from the school library for quite some time now. If you are familiar with these books, you will know that they have pages in the books called "Flip-O-Ramas". Two very similar pictures are drawn a page apart and the reader is encouraged to flip the page back and forth as quickly as he can to create the effect of a moving picture.  I noticed Adam drawing up a storm in some old recycled books that I had given him and discovered that he was creating his own "Flip-O-Ramas"! Some mimicry at it's creative best!

It's difficult to see the effect by looking at these photographs, but I must tell you, that when you flip the pages quickly, that little guy sure looks like he's swimming!