When my mother prepared her drawings to show the publisher for the first time, there was one in the stack that caught my eye—a cluster of grapes. The grapes were a grouping of circles, like racked billiard balls. “Mom, you made this drawing? I remember drawing this, but not with you.” With the drawing in hand, my thoughts went to a quiet moment on a sizzling hot summer day when I was seven years-old:

Sitting beside the wading pool, I used wet fingers to draw circles on the cement patio. The goal was to draw four circles, all the same size, lined up in a row. I could make two the same size, but the third was too high or the fourth was oval-shaped. The circles vanished in the summer heat. I tried again and again, until four perfect circles lined up. Challenged, I tried to add a second row of circles before the first row evaporated. It became a race. Draw the line of four circles, the line of three, then two and one. Hurrah! I did it! I beat the sun!

I looked at my mother's simple little drawing of grapes again. Her lessons make such a strong impression on children—ideas and concepts that reach far beyond classroom walls and intrigue the child long after the lesson is finished.

Grape Lesson, Draw Write Now, Book 2, page 26