Out of the Frying Pan...

TODAY'S ACTIVITIES:

• Bead Stringing
• Hardware Busy Board
• Using a Dropper
• Hardware Puzzles
• Bead Stringing

My son and I walked to the playground yesterday afternoon, post-nap, and stayed there until he said to me, "It's getting really buggy here, Mommy, so I think we need to go home." We took our time on the way back, so it was nearly 6:30 PM when we walked through the front door. I immediately entered into "task mode" and, completely preoccupied with needing to get Parker bathed, fed and in bed by his 7:30 PM bedtime, I almost missed it when he asked me, "Can we do some more school now, Mommy?" A trumpet fanfare sounded in my head upon hearing those sweet words! Hooray! My son likes school! Not that that swayed me from my mission to get him in bed on time, but still... Hooray! Well, since that miraculous moment yesterday evening, Parker has asked for (more like demanded) school thrice more. I've got to tell you, I kind of feel like I've been thrown out of the frying pan and into the fire. (Out of the play dough and into the paste?) We've ended the "But I don't like school!" drama, only to almost immediately begin "I want to do school NOW!" theatrics. I'm hoping that my son will eventually adapt to our new routine and apprehend that school time is a singular occurrence in the day, not something that can be requested. In the meantime, I just keep reminding him ad nauseum that, "We do school after Daddy leaves for work."

Bead work bookended our school session today. No surprise there; Parker hearts his beads. He did the dump truck and roller derby stuff with them again, but he also let me engage him in some stringing and that seemed to captivate him more than it had done previously. Most other parents would have probably figured this out ages ago, but it suddenly dawned on me while watching my son today that he wants to be able to fully interact with the materials--and explore all their possible uses--before he accepts the boundaries I assert (e.g., the beads and shoelaces are for stringing, and only stringing). I present materials that are most often brand new to him, so naturally he has to sate his innate curiosity and investigate them. Only after he's finished doing so can he focus on the task at hand. Duh.

Our new activity this morning was what I'm calling hardware puzzles. While we were at the hardware store shopping for busy board components, my husband and I also found hardware pieces that we used to create "puzzles" that can be taken apart and put back together again repeatedly. Each one engages a practical life skill, plus they look pretty neat. The carabiner and the union will require some practicing for Parker to master, but that's what school is all about, right?