I worry -- what, me? worry? I should have just named this blog "Me, Fretting" -- about being a creative parent. Sometimes, I Just Don't Know What To Do with the young creature under my immediate supervision. We'll play in the den, scoot about through the kitchen, pull out all the pots and pans, move to the fridge magnets, hit the living room and that set of toys, look out the window together, go upstairs to his room for more books and toys, and then... I'm out of ideas. Oh wait, we also go outside and do our requisite perimeter-walkabout of the yard. And play a little ball with the dog. And water flowers. And that is It. We have to start over.
I'm not too concerned about my lack of ideas at this point because, thank heavens, the same old toys still seem to interest him -- and, seriously, he's only 15 months old! Not like he needs Shakespeare performed LIVE or a 2-part lab experiment to stimulate his thinking! But I just hope that someday I can be the kind of parent who provides wondermous, thought-provoking activities and FUN things to do on a rainy day (or any other day). My Mom seemed to have a knack for it, although I know she wasn't down on her hands and knees with us all the time. I guess I worry because of the kind of babysitter I always was -- never the kind who would get out all the Star Wars action figures and set up a "land" and create "missions." I'd play a board game, or a good few rounds of Hide-n-Seek (okay, I admit I still love H-n-S), and then I'd want the kids to settle down and watch a video! And, then, hooray! They're going to bed!
Anyway, in this spirit, I've bought AJ his first Crayons (the fat ones in a pack of 8), I've been exploring Crayola.com and creativeparents.com, and madly clipping arts and crafts projects from "Parenting" mag. Hope they'll all come in handy someday.
2 comments:
Be sure you're working plenty of time in there just to let him go do whatever he wants to do.
I've discovered that any time I'm fresh out of ideas, I can wander around doing what I want to do and he's learned to wander around doing what he wants to do.
I'm not saying ignore your child by any means, and the crafty stuff is great, but kids can also learn to keep themselves occupied (god willing, not only by eating the dog food).
He'll let you know when he wants you to play with him.
Good advice, and I've been thinking a lot lately about unstructured time. We had a lot of it when we were kids, including RECESS. And after school, we managed to do after-school activities, too, like gymnastics and piano lessons, but we still got to play every night. Looking back it seems like we played for hours. I wonder how long it was, really? I think they were giving much less homework then, though. It's crazy that today's 2nd-graders have 2 hours of homework every night. (I hear this from my cousin.) When are they supposed to play "house" or ride their bikes all over creation??
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