With this little one, I have the maturity to just sit and follow her lead when we play. There's no right or wrong way to play anything. Really, at all. It's so relaxing and liberating to finally have realized that.
I've learned to relax because of many different experiences, and books read ;), but a major factor in this philosophy was the training I had at Early Head Start the summer I temped as a Home Visitor. Not only was I supposed to let the child lead the play, I was supposed to teach the parent to let the child lead the play: 2 levels of detachment to show how important it is to let children lead their own play.
Last night Firecracker and I played with the crayon bag (a gallon ziploc full of a couple hundred crayons!!), peeled wrappers off and practiced drawing with the sides of crayons. And lined them up all pretty. She had a fun time, and I was happy to have a somewhat more relaxed child after. Kids get keyed up when they are hurried and not in charge of their lives. When we give them the power to choose what to do, in appropriate times and amounts, they are so much happier!
1 comment:
What a lovely moment. this past Christmas I was asked by a cute young couple with a baby (still in her bucket), "what do you get a baby for Christmas?" I happened to be in the toy section and they were overwhelmed with all of their choices. the first thoughts in my head were, "of all the people in the world to whom they could pose that question..."
Needless to say, I was not very helpful in their toy picking.
I love bags of crayons.
;-)
Post a Comment