{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

 ... 

Thank you to Amanda Soule of Soule Mama for the words and inspiration.

Pretenders

Connecting Families through Creative Play: Pretend Play

If I were a child development researcher, I believe I would focus my attention on pretend play.  The process by which we learn to pretend is fascinating to me.  While Isabel still doesn't recognize herself in the mirror, Elijah is well into the phase of replicating real-life experiences on a smaller scale.  He gets in his car, drives around the house, and then, like a true city boy, says, "There's no parking spot.  I have to drive around the block." He pretends to cook, to shop, to eat.  He dropped one of his plastic eggs into the wrong container, then said, "Oops!  I dropped the eggshell.  Just like Daddy does." (Kurt claims this only happened one time.)

So, pretend play has certainly come to our house.  But today, we were at the park with a class of slightly older children, maybe closer to four years old, and a few of the girls were engaged in an elaborate make-believe scenario.  One was the mom, and the other two were the children.  I heard the one little girl say, "I have to go to work now, but don't be sad.  I'll be back soon."  This to me represents the next level of pretend play, which involves taking on the persona of someone else. 

Then, there is also the pretend play wherein the child uses little people, animals, etc, to act out a scene.  Does this come before or after pretending to be someone else?  I would guess after, but I don't know.

Finally, I got to thinking about older kids and adults.  What happens when we get "too old" to play pretend.  Well, fortunately, it doesn't happen to everyone.  If it did, I think we would be without some great actors and fiction writers.  I hear other kinds of role playing can be fun, too, but this is a family blog, so I won't get into that.

What are your thoughts on pretend play?  Clearly, I have many, but I'd like to hear yours, too.

Paint rolling

Connecting Families through Creative Play: Painting Connections

As I have mentioned before, Elijah is not really the artsy type, at least so far.  I must admit that I haven't really done a whole lot to change that.  He would rather drum, or read, or build, or dig, so I usually just go with those.  However, in his valiant attempts to let me sleep in on Mother's Day, my dear husband pulled out the paints, and since then, Elijah has been bitten by the painting bug.

His favorite thing to do is take four or so colors of paint, mix them all up with a brush until they are a nice brown color, and then absolutely soak his paper in the lovely new shade.  It seems to be an enjoyable sensory experience for him, but I'm not going to lie, it's not that fun for me.

So, when I got the CFtCP email on the subject of painting, I decided that it was time to take things in a new direction.  One that might be enjoyable for both mother and son.  I poked around on Pinterest and considered some options.  Then, when Isabel went down for her morning nap today, we went to work. 

For me, this activity had the right mix of creativity and structure.  I participated, too, but Elijah added his own flair, as usual.  We rolled the vehicles across the paper for awhile, and then Elijah tried to use the bus's face as a stamp, which only sort of worked, but he didn't seem to mind.  I thought he might enjoy washing the trucks when we were finished, but by then he was back to the music.  We had such fun, I might even try something else in the painting activities department soon.  Suggestions?

Treasure Hunter

Connecting Families Through Creative Play: Little Explorers

As Elijah has gotten older and more able to focus on a single task for a longer period of time, I have really been enjoying thinking of ways to bring the Montessori method into our home.  I have no official training, but with resources like Montessori at Home! and, my recent library pickup, How to Raise an Amazing Child the Montessori Way, I have slowly but surely been able to add in bits of Montessori here, there and everywhere.

Until recently, though, I hadn't given too much thought to using Montessori principles with infants.  Elijah was such a crankster as a baby that we spent most of our time just roaming the streets of DC.  I had heard of a Montessori "treasure basket"for babies, and it was brought to my attention once again by the second book mentioned above.

Basically, once a baby is able to sit independently, you fill a basket (or, in my case, a metal colander) with various objects from around the house that engage different senses.  At first, I wasn't sure if I had enough stuff to include, but once I started, new ideas kept popping up. 
So far, Izzy's basket has:

•  a paper cup 
• a brush
• a fabric tea bag
• a sprig of rosemary
• a bell
• a pastry blender
• a wooden spoon
• a wooden train track
• crocheted snake
• a sock full of beans
• and a knitted alligator

   I waited until Elijah was asleep to present her with the basket.  Then, as the book prescribed, I didn't say anything, but just allowed her to explore.  Which she did.  For an hour.  By herself. 

I am interested to see what will happen tomorrow when I bring the basket out again.  Will she return to the same favorite items?  What would happen if I introduced a few new things? 

Treasure basket indeed.