The past 24 hours have nearly convinced me to sell any of my kids toys made of plastic to resemble a real-life object. I’ll only keep obscure shapes and household items. I had a long IM conversation with KLR about schooling after my sister’s recent questions about my neice’s preschooling next year and my own looking for H to attend in the fall (he’ll be 3 in November, but school system preschools apparently do some registering over the summer, I would guess so they can prepare for enrollment, blah blah blah).
This led to adding more comments to my recent post about young kids and homework (thanks to all who responded – some fabulous thoughts that I’d not considered before! Although I would like someone to defend homework to some extent – teachers, I doubt, are assigning it without reason). We talked about ditto sheets and then into the lack of creativity that’s required, which if you ask me – and you sort of did, by continuing to read this – is the shortfall of our education.
I think creativity is what breeds leaders who can problem solve effectively; they’re innovators and creators. Bill Gates, as geeky as he is, needed the freedom to create and step out of “what’s been done” in order to produce a staple in nearly every office and school across the country. Then I read an article scientifically validating my accusations.
So I’ve been paying attention to my own kids and their play learning. Yesterday H spent no less than 40 minutes with his “beans” – which I like to call his Mexican Sandbox. It’s litterally a tub of raw black and white beans, a muffin tin, a shovel and an old yogurt container. He plays with them on an old shower curtain to make it easier to clean up. (No credit to myself – this idea came from a preschool teacher I know. I’m not creative enough to come up with such thing!). I heard him talking strategy about whatever he was doing with those beans. And he even helped to clean up.
Then last night he had 2 coasters, 2 round wooden pieces of a stacking toy we have and went to the kitchen to fetch 2 spoons. Turns out he was feeding me “cookies and applesauce”. Try as I might to get him to go down to get the toy dishes from the basement, he wanted the coasters and spoons from the kitchen. I drew the line at real forks. It’s all fun and games until someone looses an eye.
I have to wonder how often I get in the way of the play that he enjoys – and needs – so much. When I offer what he’s “supposed” to play with instead of allowing him to create toys in his own environment. I don’t want to hand him a light saber to play Star Wars when I can give him a stick (or one of those poles that holds up the peppers) and sit back and find out what he sees.
Somehow toy companies have convinced us parents that we’re incapable of providing things to our children that both entertain and educate. Our tools must be purchased instead of created (aha! see? It’s not just at the children’s level). But in my limited experience, I’m finding that the kiddos just love to play adult, helping with the dishes and cooking is one of H’s favorite things. They enjoy the measuring cups and wooden spoons, mommy’s pencils and paper even over their own coloring books. Even as babies, the kids liked the spice jars filled with beans and sugar better than the plastic rattles that I offered.
So, I’m not really going to sell all the toys in my house. However there will be a weeding out process. I’ll let his favorites stay – the barn with all the animals, for sure. But when I reflect upon his “favorites” – the bean bags, books, magnets (both mine and the ones that make music when you match), Buckeye, balls; they’re all objects that don’t limit him to a single activity. Perhaps I should leave the toy procurement to the professionals – as in, the ones who play with them.
Category: Uncategorized (Page 103 of 188)
I’ve recently been reading Eat, Pray Love as I somehow put off getting the most recent bookclub book and neither KLR or SMC seem to be offering me theirs, as they were a bit more proactive on getting into the library queue. Yes, I totally just tried to shrug my laziness off upon my generally good natured and obviously more on top of it friends. I also recently blamed KLR for my slightly neurotic behavior (because, since she no longer lives near me to discuss sanity issues, it’s clearly her fault. As a BFF, she should have to follow me when I move. It’s in the job description.)
But back to the book. In general I don’t like her premise. I find her to be quite selfish and self-centered. However, she’s a spectacular writer and I do find many of the the personal explorations quite interesting. I’m through her time in Italy – which, if you ask me, didn’t focus nearly enough on the wine that went with her quest for the next best meal.
Now, she’s off to India. I’ve been there – this chapter is not going to be about the food. Or the smells, which was probably a stronger sensory experience for me. I made a lsit of the smells of India: dogs. exhaust. curry. incense. Non-showered humans (specifically my American travel companions, so fear not that this is a statement about race or nationality. The fact of the matter is, a bucket just can’t get you as Zestfully clean as a shower). As you can tell, this trip didn’t didn’t put Southeast Asia on my vacation list. It’s a fascinating culture, the people are nice, all that… but I was glad to be home.
So, Liz of the Book arrives in India in search of devotion. Aside from the obvious – that you don’t really have to go anywhere to find that – I do think this experience will add depth to her character. Most of her belief language is Hindi-esque with Yoga as a vehicle – that is, the medititation-like “Om” yoga, not the Jillian Michaels DVD that fails to mention words like “namaste” or “inner” (unless in the context of “working those inner thighs”). I found a lot of it a bit wishy-washy – that is, until she started in on a guru. The stage-2 Yogi. The wisdom-leader. The medicine man of the soul.
Sold. I totally want one.
From my days of fettishing after Jewish subculture and practices, I know that the rabbi can sometimes hold a similar place… a student would “sit at the feet” of the rabbi and learn his teachings. Soak in the wisdom. Better herself. Become self-actualized. Live better, love better. All those things you can cross-stitch into a pillow or find on a cover of a day planner.
Don’t get me wrong… Jesus is my Guru, the best place to begin to learn about life. But at different points in my life I’ve been privilaged to have a relationship with different people that shed light into my life; it was like a refreshing breath. Sometimes it was encouragement, sometimes it was hard truth, often times it was nothing to do with me but rather the world and its design. But I loved the freedom and ability and luxury of sharing these thoughts with another human being and having reciprocated conversation around things of existential nature (can I use “existential” to modify “things”? Is that a bit of an oxymoron?).
I don’t have the time to run off to India for 6 weeks to become enlightened; I believe I can learn a bit about devotion in the rainy spring of Ohio. But I’m totally jealous of her dedication and follow through. I bet she gets the book club book the night after it’s selected, too. I’m also jealous of her book deal that turned into a movie starring Julia Roberts. And I’m jealous that she got paid in advance to take this trip and then write about it. But all this jealousy talk is probably not good for my inner-self. If I had a guru, I’m sure that’s what she’d say.
Do I put this under a “jobs” or “services” on Craigslist?
I was recently told asked to take a break from all the food learning, it was making for stale conversation. So I moved on to education. I’m facinated by the learning process, how some kids learn and excel while others resent school. Some of it is the hubby’s vocation, but overall it probably just fits into my larger fettish for understanding the teenage and young adult years.
So this post about homework for young kids by Rage Against the MiniVan had me reading every single comment. I have a few kindergarten teacher friends, I’m dying to know what they think. I seem to know several people in the educational system in general and would love their 2 cents as well. I won’t even charge 2 cents. We’ll call it a Saturday special and you can leave it for free.