Let's think for a moment of the mind as two muscles. One muscle is used when we do things involving words like reading a book, writing a letter, or listening to someone talk. The other muscle is used for "visual" things like recognizing a face of someone we've seen before, reading a map, or remembering a place we've been. This other muscle also controls our daydreaming, flights of fantasy, and our imagination.

• Draw a picture of something (like a bicycle or shoe) showing it from three different views on the same page.
• Take an object apart and then draw it. (Get permission first!)
• Fill a page with drawings of bugs, sea shells, or something you collect.
• Examine an object for one minute. Put the object away. Then draw a picture of what you remember about it. When you finish drawing, look at the object again and see how much you remembered of it.
• Use a magnifying glass to draw enlarged views of waterdrops, hair, plant leaves, and other small items.
• Go through a magazine and cut out a photograph of something you enjoy or find interesting to look at. Draw a picture of this image--only turn it upside down. (This will make you look closely at what you're drawing.)
• Show someone how to do something (like making a paper airplane) in a sequence of drawn pictures (with as few words as possible.)
• Draw yourself by looking in a mirror.
• Draw a family member or friend from memory.
• Draw your pet or go to a local zoo and draw the animals there.
• Draw a map showing your route from home to school. Include local landmarks. (For more practice, draw a map of your neighborhood, backyard, or bedroom.)
• Sit under a tree and draw it from your point of view. Draw other things around your backyard from unusual points-of-view.
• Take your shoe off and examine it closely. Feel its contours, look inside it, turn it upside down. Once you are familiar with it, draw a picture of it. Try this with other objects around the house.

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