a parenting post??

        A few days ago me and my sister were having a chat about our children (what else is there to talk about anways??) and their crazy antics and different things they had been doing to drive us crazy. And we always find it so interesting how different children are and how we kinda ( I do anyways) expect them to behave like other children that we see..and how we get frustrated sometimes." Why can't you sit still for 5 minutes like so and so??? " We all do it..admit it!! We put a lot of expectations on our children to behave a certain way instead of encouraging them in the strengths that they do possess. Its only took me 2 years to finally grasp this concept ( I still have trouble sometimes) and realize Lucas is not like Colby or Kai or Riley...He is Lucas and he will do things how he sees them and mommy needs to back off and let his personality shine through! So yesterday I set out on a mission to find things for him to do that would encourage his strengths and give me a few minutes of peace to be able to cook supper or do laundry. This would be an easy task if my husband was home to distract him but he is away working again...so I needed to get some ideas going to help my mission of "peace"! I went to one of my favorite stores, Michaels, and started scanning each aisle for ideas and this is what I found..a lace and trace set, pipe cleaner and an animal marker set (on clearance, YES!). Lucas loves to use his hands and has great fine motor skills (always has) and he is annalytical (not like his dad at all!). He will sit still for longer than 5 mins if his hands are busy and his mind is thinking...hence why tv watching does not last very long!

     The lace and trace was off to a good start...he loves animals so this also encourage him! He didnt quite get the concept of putting it through on hole and than another and so on but kept to one hole and pulling the string all the way through and repeating that through another. That will come with time. I believe I got at least 10 mins out of this project which is good in my books!

Next project was using pipe cleaners to put them in the holes in a colander. Fun for him but unfortunately they bent too easy and the little metal ends would poke him, which eventually deterred him. Might have to think of another way to use them! Any ideas??

         The best was saved for last. The animal markers (washable of course). This encourages fine motor skills, matching, naming and coloring of course!! A win win situation! His favorite part was taking the lids off and putting them back on (the heads are the lids). As well he loved the different animals. What I loved to see was it didnt matter how many heads you took off he always managed to put the right heads back on the right body and name the animal. I even got him to say what colors some of the animals were! Some of the color made it on the paper but mostly he enjoyed coloring his hands and putting the lids on of course! He didnt want to put them down and played for at least 30 mins with these!! SUCCESS!! (if you run to Michaels right now you might be able to grab some for $3.99!!)

I know as he grows his tastes will change a little but I hope that I can keep encouraging him in his talents! I would love to hear what you have found works for your child or any other ideas that I can use!