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Thinking Outside the Box---er...Pumpkin?

I find myself struggling to think of activities to "bond" with my daughter and expand her hands-on learning experiences.

For a family who is strongly considering homeschooling as a viable option, this is not a good start.

Perhaps I am lacking the ability to think outside the box.  I often think of things as too messy or too beyond her current ability.  Or I discount ideas do to her short attention span.

When a friend invited me over to carve pumpkins, I have to admit I didn't jump for joy at the idea.  I didn't think Haley would be very interested and I couldn't help but shutter at the idea of the mess.  But, with Ian working massive overtime this weekend, I thought it would be nice to get out and enjoy the company of other adults and children alike.  So I stepped outside my comfort zone and decided to make the best of it,.

Obviously I am not dumb enough to hand my child a knife and have her hack at a pumpkin.  But I did put her in her booster seat and have her be my little "helper".  She loved it and sat there for well over an hour.  She helped me scoop out all the seeds and gunk.  She LOVED putting her hand down in the nasty stuff and pull out the seeds.

She was thrilled with the entire experience--and it definitely held her attention.  She learned all types of new words, and was happy to even sit and watch on the parts she couldn't be hands on with.  It was so nice to have her sit and focus on one task for longer than a few moments.  So it got me thinking, I need to get on finding more structured activities because she is getting bored with me and I am loosing patience with her.  When we are at home, she walks around crying and fussing a lot.  She is getting bored with her toys and bored with me.  I really don't like to invest a lot of money into toys because kid's toys are so expensive, WAY over stimulating, and she losses interest within 5 minutes of playing with one.  Lately, all she wants to do is watch Cailou; which we try to limit because it isn't good for her to watch hours of TV each day (if I have the TV on, she ZONES IN COMPLETELY--its creepy how zoned in she gets).  So I am now on a mission to find more structured activities for her to enjoy.  Both with me and interdependently.  Thank goodness for Pinterest.  I think I will be able to find a lot of ideas on there.

Here are a few pictures from this evening.  I had SUCH a great time.  It has been like 6 years since I've carved pumpkins!  So much fun! Being a mom means being able to be a kid again.





 

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