Forgive me, once again for being behind. We’re in the process of moving from our trailer, to a modular home. Nicely enough, the change to our new home and the changes I have been making with my son, are helping us to start a-new. First of all, we’ve needed a bigger place for months. Ever since Brendan started crawling, we haven’t had near enough room. He was constantly getting into things that we had nowhere else to put them. So no, is a frequently used word in our household.
In finding everyday magic, however it begins to kind of blend the no’s and the yes’s into kind of a happy medium. The yes’s begin to outweigh the no’s and he has a little bit more freedom to do that in which he chooses, just in a much safer way. Instead of telling him no, he cannot play with the fan, for instance, we made our own paper fans on Tuesday, and he was free to play with this one. There’s no denying the smile that spreads across his face when he realizes that he does have the freedom to explore and learn. Even more, that I’m willing to nurture his natural instinct to do so.
First, he tried fanning himself, and everyone else around him, as mirroring my actions. Soon enough, he started spreading it out, breaking it down. It’s as though it weren’t enough to watch me, and to help me make them. He needed to see each part, feel each part with his own hands. Then, of course, enviabitably, it made it into his mouth. We talked about what the fan does, why it’s a luxury, and how a fan works. After the paper fan was reduced to mush, we then talked about the differences between our homemade fan, the table fan and the ceiling fan. You’d never guess what his favorite new word is!
Wednesday, I set up a bin full of fall colored construction paper for Brendan to pull, tear and crumple. Not only did this enable his natural destroy and conquer instinct, but it is also a great activity for developing fine motor control. He was quite alarmed at first, unsure at the thought of never being allowed near the important papers in our household, he kind of shied away. It wasn’t until after I added some fall colored tissue paper to the bin that he finally decided to dig in. We had fun ripping the paper to shreds, crinkling it, and even stomping on it. I guess he associated the colors and texture to leaves, because soon after I introduced the bin to him, he declared, “Leaf, leaf!”
Thursday, the weather was nice, so we tied an old white bed sheet to our clothes line. We then filled a squirt bottle full of non-toxic paint. It only took a few minutes of guiding Brendan’s hands to teach him to squirt the paint all over the bed sheet before he set his own pace. Soon enough, he was giggling and running around, continuing to squirt the paint to his heart’s content. Needless to say, by the end of this activity, there was not a clean area of skin, clothing, ground or blanket left. This activity nurtured his need to explore, developed fine motor control, and allowed him to self-learn.
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