A peek into the mind of a five-year-old

Yesterday I was out buying supplies for the cross country meet that STMA is hosting, and in the midst of these travels I came across an unbeatable deal on hardcover sketchbooks at a crafts store. I splurged and purchased one for each of the boys. When I came home this evening, they were each hard at work--Cletus diligently penciling a wild, squiggly line on every page, and Cyprian and Clement exercising just a little more artistic discretion. I was really taken by Cyprian's pictures, so, since I'm too busy with school and cross country meet prep to share anything else, I thought I'd share a few.

We start at the beginning of the book with his name, written frontwards, and what Cyprian tells me is a chicken...

Here we see more chickens--certainly an apropos topic here at Kleinshire--followed by a snake chasing someone up a hill. Are there deeply buried feelings of guilt associated with the snakes we've brutally murdered? Perhaps a more seasoned art critic--or child psychologist--call fill me in!

I don't know about this one--an apple tree, to be sure, but perhaps at another level a reflection on original sin? Someone's caught in a giant spiderweb on the next page. I hope it's not me.

Turning to the last few pages--yes, we skipped the middle of the book; I guess it's like a cinnamon roll, where you save the middle for last--we come across the seascapes. Pirates, fat sharks with mutated fins; all the normal boy stuff.

More boy stuff--guns, of course. I'm really impressed by the sun's moodiness.

And in the inside back cover, his name again. Backwards. How that happened, I'm not sure, but it does seem surprisingly fitting that if one's name is on the front, it face inwards, and if it's in the back, that it face inwards too.