Surfaces & Souvenirs is about avoiding the "standard" experience for children. It is about learning to see beyond the obvious. It about watching things evolve. Every outing should incite wonder. Every excursion should grab their attention, and sharpen their sensibilities. Every experience must attend to their inclinations and spur development of their interests. Every outing, that reveals a multitude of materials, textures and interactions, nurtures their capacity to think laterally, which would lead them to the appropriate solutions for problems they may encounter. Unusual and asymmetrical experiences in places like the junk and the train yards, listing to sounds, watching textures evolve, visiting construction sites, exploring forests for edible plants, looking into factories, abandoned buildings and grain elevators, visiting Airports to see them function, the message of great architecture, old and new, not only expands their understanding of the functions, but the systems that govern such functions as well. These kinds of exposures refine, not only their curiosity and instincts, but intellectual development, channeling their energies to a more focused creative and academic involvement, both, at home and school. This is the retardant, an antidote, against the "instant gratification culture" of our contemporary lifestyles

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