Fun: Thoughts on Beauty from a 5-Year-Old

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Jacob ready to hand in his poem.

Jacob is one of my friends. This year he’s a kindergartener and aside from learning what kindergarteners learn (is it statistics yet and French?) he was asked by his teacher to consider participating in the statewide PTA Reflections contest.

Each year the organization provides the program for students to demonstrate their creativity through categories such as visual arts, photography, literature, dance composition and choreography, musical composition and film production.

“Jacob might like to do this,” his teacher told his mom.

So mom and Jacob talked about it. For several days after school he dictated to her all the items his young and expanding mind had filed under “beauty.” Next mom read it back to him, bit by bit so Jacob could write it out (mostly phonetically). It took five lined pages, but he did it. Determined to tell the world – or at least those who read the entries – what beauty means.

Below is the original work this young T.S. Eliot wrote:

My Poem About Beautiful

Beauty is like beautiful
I am beautiful and my family
My classroom
The turkey that I made at school

The Indian face that Adam [a younger brother] made
Different colors everywhere
Rainbows are beautiful
Legoland is beautiful with lots of colors

The sun
Mrs. Holmes’ shirt
The patterns on your bed
The patterned zebras and giraffes

Apples are what make apple trees beautiful
The night is beautiful
The sand, the sun, the people at the beach are beautiful

Mr. Greg said God’s glory is beautiful [Mr. Greg is Jacob’s teacher at church]
Beautiful is stuff that God made: the world, the stars, everything
The Statue of Liberty

Jacob’s masterpiece and its translation are submitted. If he places in the contest you’ll be the first to know the breaking news. In the meantime, I would like Jacob to know I think both he and his work are beautiful.

Just wondering: 
Why don’t you join me in adding to Jacob’s list of beautiful things? Let’s make a mega-list of beautiful things! There’s room for you to add as many items as you wish.

14 thoughts on “Fun: Thoughts on Beauty from a 5-Year-Old”

  1. Beautiful Thing 1: Another Day
    Beautiful Thing 2: Sunshine to warm you in fall.
    Beautiful Thing 3: Relationships with people willing to accept you “as is.”
    Beautiful Thing 4: Cooking for my family.
    Beautiful Thing 5: A Thanksgiving with loved ones.

    Now it’s your turn!

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  3. BT6: Twilight
    BT7: My daughter’s smile
    BT8: The red holly berries on the tree outside my window
    BT9: Shells on the sand at tide’s edge
    BT10: A boy and his dog
    BT11: The embrace of dear friends
    BT12: God’s grace

    Like

  4. Oh so many beautiful things:
    Blue sky.
    Warm sun.
    Green meadow.
    The sound of the waves.
    A good book.
    The touch of Jesus on my heart.
    My husband’s kiss.
    The love of family and friends.
    Being able to do what I was called to do: write!

    Rachel 🙂

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  5. Claire Estanislao

    I forgot to tell you that he loved seeing his picture on here and then before I scrolled down he said “but where’s my poem?” so I scrolled down and he said “that’s it my beautiful poem, pretty cool hey mom!” Then he called Adam with these words!! “Hey Adam come here you’ve got to see Jacob ‘the writer’ on the computer!”

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  7. Laura Makouske

    A cat’s slow blinks
    My grandmother’s scars
    A child reading
    Michigan winters
    The smell of lilacs
    A genuine smile
    A pregnant belly
    Uncontrollable laughter

    Like

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