She will only participate in activities where she is given tools and techniques, but can use them to create whatever she wants. Doesn't make life the easiest(!)
I'm familiar with a child who could tell at a glance what picture would emerge when all the numbered holes on lacing cards were followed in order. In this child's mind, a plain butterfly was so... plain... and a better use of the laces and cards would be to decorate the butterfly's wings in a radiant pattern rather than outline them. Unfortunately, the laces were too short... or there were not enough of them, resulting in the butterfly not receiving upgraded wing designs... but only in the child taking an unusually long time to outline the wings (after un-lacing several times, tying laces together, trying a new approach to the design, untying laces, etc).
...the importance of agreeing with others on what rules will be used, when.
Very wise! The lacing experiments mentioned above were conducted by this child in a corner of the kindergarten room, when, unbeknownst to the child, they were being observed as the subject of an IQ assessment being conducted. When learning this after-the-fact, the child went into self-advocacy mode and stated that had they been told in advance, they would have simply followed the conventional rules.
