Days Six, Seven and Eight

           We’ve been busy celebrating birthdays within the family and also, with moving, but I haven’t been neglecting my duties. On Saturday, we talked about the color orange. More specifically, we talked about pumpkins. Brendan’s grandpa grew him about thirty pumpkins in his garden this year, so Friday we picked some to decorate. As we decorated them, we pointed out each pumpkin’s eyes, ears and mouth. This was by far Brendan’s favorite Halloween activity so far. He enjoyed trying to pull out the eyes, ears, and noses. We also made pumpkin spice play-dough. Brendan decided the play dough wasn’t as good for playing, as it was for eating. He carried the play-dough around with him for the rest of the day. The pumpkins make all of us smile, making me realize that not only the winter holidays can bring good cheer, but also fall holidays.

                Sunday, I took Brendan to his first pumpkin patch. He was grinning from ear to ear from the moment he laid eyes on the horses that were at Deal’s over the weekend for pony rides. If only he were old enough to ride, he would have thought of this occasion as the most magical of the entire day. Instead, he most enjoyed us endlessly chasing him around the miniature corn-maze. Hearing him giggle as we told him, “I’m going to get you!” was the highlight of my entire day.

                Monday, I took Brendan to McHose Park for the afternoon. We grilled and played in the leaves. He thoroughly enjoyed burying his tiny feet in the leaves and crinkling them with his hands. After he started to get tired of playing in the leaves, I pulled out my secret weapon, bubbles. He had never seen bubbles before, but I think, for him it was a form of love at first sight. He giggled in delight as he chased them, trying to pop them and catch them in his mouth. It’s moments like that, that make me realize why I chose to begin this quest.

I realize he's wearing the same shirt as the previous day. However, this is simply because i changed his shirt the day before and it was conviently in the car still the next day when he got the shirt he was wearing on Monday all dirty. I promise these pictures are from two separate days!

Watching the bubbles!

Days Four And Five

Thursday, we had a very long day and I didn’t have time to blog. We participated in a Montessori activity that involved sticking blunt toothpicks into play dough. This activity is said to improve upon concentration in toddlers. At first, Brendan just was only interested in the play dough. He kneaded it, rolled it into a ball, made holes in it, and of course, tasted it. After about ten minutes of activities with the play dough alone, his full focus was on the toothpicks. First, I showed him how to stick the toothpicks upright, into the play dough. He tried, frustrated, several times to get them upright, but didn’t quite have the coordination to get them all the way in. After all that frustration, he finally got a toothpick stuck upright, but it didn’t end up in the play dough; it ended up sticking upright in the foam tiles of Brendan’s play room. At least, he got the idea.

                After we finished that activity, Brendan was still thoroughly engrossed with the toothpicks. I decided to make letters of the alphabet with them and use them as tools to teach him each letter. To my surprise, after 15 minutes of repeating the letters A, B and C to him, he actually remembered the letter C. He was very happy with himself when I announced that he had done an excellent job and that he was, in fact a big boy. He was still saying “C, C, C” when his dad got home from work.

                Friday, we spent the day at a friend’s house. Her little boy is twenty-one months old, so he and Brendan play well together. While at their house, we painted old thread spools black and used white pipe-cleaners to make whiskers, so that the spools resembled black cats. We thought this was a cute idea, in honor of Halloween. We then attempted to teach the boys the Halloween song “Three Black Cats,” a song that is sung to the tune of Three Blind Mice. My friend’s little boy caught on pretty well, Brendan however could only repeat “Cat, cat, cat.” The two of them were very proud of themselves.

                Brendan then was able to color with crayons for his very first time! He wasn’t really sure of the crayon’s purpose at first. He just watched Gage in amusement for a few minutes. Finally he began twirling the crayon around on the paper with a huge grin on his face. We had to remind him a few times, that crayons are for coloring on paper and not on furniture, but he had fun.  It’s amazing how the easiest activities bring the most joy.

Day Three

               It has only been three days since I’ve actually began my quest, and yet I’m already beginning to notice a change in my son. He’s much happier, more willing to spend a little bit more time being independent and overall less fussy. Last night, he awoke during the middle of the night screaming. When I went to pick him up, he burped and immediately requesting to be put back in bed. Never, could I have ever imagined that he would finally be independent enough that he would prefer to put himself to bed. At least not at this age.

                Over the next week, I plan to engage my son in some holiday sensory activities. The holidays are the best time to bring about some childhood magic. Today, we talked about apples and their differences in colors. We also talked about the texture of apples and what types of products we can make from apples. When we got home, he had his first taste of apple cider. It was not something he enjoyed, to say the least. For our snacks today, we also incorporated the apple theme by eating apple sauce and apple crisp. He enjoyed that much more.

                We also did a little bit of artwork to stimulate his creativity. Today we made ghosts by dipping his little feet into white paint and making footprints on black paper. I then stuck googly eyes on to make the footprints appear as ghosts. Brendan is really starting to enjoy our daily art projects. He caught on really quickly and was requesting more paper to stick his feet on. After we finished making our ghosts, he decided to finger paint with the remaining paint and paper. He even used a paint brush for the first time. For the rest of the day, so far, he has been carrying the paint brush with him everywhere he goes.

Day two

Brendan is not feeling well today. His top, right canine tooth is coming in, as is his bottom, left molar. He struggled when he was getting his first, and so far only molar in. He was fussy, didn’t sleep much and just wanted to be held. I knew as soon as he woke up this morning that this wasn’t going to be a good day for arts and crafts. So I decided to let him choose which route to take for the day.

                As soon as he was finished eating, taking a bath and getting dressed, he went straight for his books. I let him choose the order of the books and played off of his lead. I would quit reading to him, only when he tired of me reading. In total we read 112 books this morning. I knew he loved reading, but I didn’t know he loved it so much that he’d intently listen to me read quite so long. Needless to say, mommy’s throat is aching, but Brendan is beyond happy. He hasn’t even cried much due to teething pain.

                His next plan for his day was for mommy to hold him while we listened to music. We started with Raffi’s “Brush Your Teeth,” while we brushed his teeth. Then we moved onto to some baby sign language songs. Brendan loves doing baby sign language, it’s really something he excels in. He does his own little version of each sign, but it’s amazing to see his creativity come out. He still wasn’t ready for mommy to put him down, so we sang and danced for another hour until he finally fell asleep.

                My hope, is that by letting him choose his own path for the day, it will boost his self-confidence. Self-confidence is very important to the development of imagination and creativity. Self-confidence also leads to a willingness to try new things. I plan to let him take the initiative more often in our daily activities.

Day one of discovering everyday childhood magic

Today, Brendan and I tried finger painting for the first time! He was actually quite hesitant and looked at me in utter disgust when I put a dab of paint onto his tiny hand. Finally, with a look of deep concentration on his face, he squished his hand together in a fist. He continued opening and closing his fist a few times and then looked up at me and smiled! This was the exact reaction I had been hoping for! It took him a few times of watching mommy rub the dab of finger paint onto the paper for him to catch on. He enjoyed painting himself more than the paper and tired of it quickly though. For those of you wondering, we used Crayola Wonder paint. It’s goopy and colorless until painted on special paper. That’s how it’s supposed to be but it showed a little color on the tray to his highchair. 

Since he tired of painting with finger paint quickly, I decided to incorporate a snack into this activity. I scooped a spoonful of strawberry, banana yogurt onto his highchair tray. He enjoyed this a lot more than the colorless paint. It wasn’t long before his entire tray was smeared with yogurt. After awhile, he stuck his face on the tray and started licking it off the tray! I gave him a spoon so he could finally learn how to use utensils, he is never interested and always prefers that we feed him. To my surprise, he scooped some right up and stuck the spoon in his mouth! 

After we finished finger painting, we still had about ten minutes left our daily thirty extra minutes left. I decided to utilize this time to incorporate some Montessori teaching. Brendan has always enjoyed letting me help him wash his hands, so I decided I would attempt to teach him to wash his hands himself. I got the idea for this project out of the book entitled “Help Me Do It Myself” by Maja Pitamic. For this activity you need a large plastic bowl, a tray, a bar of soap, a medium pitcher filled with warm water and two hand towels.

First, I placed the bowl on the table with all of the remaining items to the right. I filled the bowl half full of water. Then I wet my hands and rubbed soap over my hands slowly, allowing Brendan to see that I was covering my hands with the soap. I did this while singing “Top and bottom, top and bottom. In between, in between. Don’t forget to rinse now, don’t forget to rinse now. Nice and clean, nice and clean.” I then allowed Brendan to watch me place the soap back in it’s proper place, to the right of the bowl. I then rinsed my hands in the water while repeating the song, which I orignally heard on the Disney Channel. Then I dried my hands using the towl, slowly so he could see that I was drying each part of my hand. I then replaced the dirty water with the clean, explaining while showing him the dirty water, that the water needs to be changed before he washes his hands because it’s dirty.

Then finally, he had a chance to try. First, he splashed in the water a bit. Okay, that’s a bit of a lie. He splashed in the water a lot. He splashed so much, that the water needed to be replaced a few times. I reminded him gently that we were washing our hands and I handed him the soap. To my surprise, he lathered his hands generously and returned the soap to it’s starting place. He then, of course tasted the soap. Given the look on his face, he must not have liked the taste. He then proceeded to splash his soapy hands in the water. After awhile, he discovered that the water had become soap and I observed as he attempted to pop a few bubbles. He became frustrated after time, because there were no more bubbles to pop. Again, I gently reminded him that we were washing our hands and it was time to dry them. I could tell he was getting tired of this activity, as he demanded, “No!” So I dried his hands for him. I think he’ll gain better understanding of this activity with time.

Proposal Quest Final Draft

Shannon Groves
Composition 105
Lauren Rice

A Magical Quest

“That’s the thing with magic. You’ve got to know it’s still here, all around us, or it just stays invisible for you”-Charles de Lint. Catching snowflakes on your tongue, watching the sunset, witnessing a shooting star, the laughter of a child, the smell of fresh rain, hearing the ocean’s wave in a seashell. Slow down, focus on the moment and you will find the beauty that is waiting to be encountered. Children are constantly affected by everyday magic, as they are experiencing the little joys in life for the first time. For the next thirty days, I’m going slow down with my son and help him to experience the everyday magic of his childhood through creativity and expanding his imagination. Each day we will do something creative, whether big or small, for at least thirty minutes to make his childhood magical.

Sitting in a hospital waiting room, I had the pleasure of talking to one extraordinary mother. Upon discovering that she had polycystic ovary syndrome, she adopted a child from Russia. She did everything she could to make her little girl’s childhood as magical as possible. She began reminiscing with me and one memory stood out from all the rest. She had told me that one night after she had worked a long shift at work; her daughter told her that stuffed animals were hungry. Even though she was tired and the housework needed to be finished, she stopped and made tea and cookies so they could have a tea party with all of her stuffed animals and dolls.

Listening to this mother’s story was amazing. It gave me a warm feeling that made my heart smile. It brought back a flood of childhood memories of finger painting on the sidewalk with my father and the day my father cleared out the garage, carried in six old elementary school desks that he had found sitting on the side of the road,  so that I could play school with all my baby dolls. How wonderful would it be to have the time to do the same type of thing for my own child? It’s a well known fact that children thrive off of a doting parent’s attention, but I’d like to delve in further than that. I’d like to expand his horizon, help him to grow and to learn and to give him unique experiences. I vow to embark on a journey of creativity with my child.

Each day we will embark on a new journey on our quest to find childhood magic. We will finger paint, play mind enriching activities and I will take the time out to really get to know my child’s personality. We will also do activities that will stimulate his senses and teach him life skills. The goal is to do something every day to make him smile. To spend a little extra time with him every day that I would otherwise be spending on chores or schoolwork, and in the end creating a lifetime of memories that he can one day tell to his grandchildren.

My rules will include, first to spend at least thirty extra minutes with my son a day. Second, we must engage in an activity that will stimulate his brainpower and imagination by using creative activities to bring out his individual interests. Third, we cannot repeat the same activity two days in a row.

I think my success rate will be one-hundred percent. I believe my son will thrive off of the newly gained attention and interest, therefore improving his behavior and well being. The hardest part of the whole quest will be to create new activities to inspire him each day. I will have to draw inspiration from the internet, books, and the help of a few close friends who are also mothers.

This quest will be a definite challenge. As of right now, my son is thirteen months old, and I’m not quite sure how I’ll come up with creative ideas that will get his imagination going, as well as to open his eyes to the small pleasures in life. I’m going to have to learn to balance the housework, full-time schoolwork and creating unique experiences for my son each day. It’s time to make more time out for my child. Perhaps this will create an opportunity to improve his behavior and self-confidence. I hope that through this experience, we can eliminate the amount of tantrums my son has in a day.