practising the finer arts

I had a friend email last week saying this:
"Karina, I absolutely love your blog.. the craft, the painting, the amazing things you create with your very lucky children. But reading it causes me to despair. I have 4 boys who are totally not interested in anything crafty or painty, but prefer to spend every minute of every day with either their trains or cars. I often set things up for then only to find I am doing it on my own ( its very therapeutic!). Any suggestions??"

Well, to tell the truth, my week is progressing much the same :) my two littles, who have been taken to here, there and everywhere, have NO interest in my crafty love this week. And so, I too, was despairing over lack of fun and learning. And then I walked in on them building the fourth train track of the week and realised how much they were getting out of it. How Amahli was joining track together, trying to work out how each piece is connected, using hand eye coordination, concentration and patience to get each piece to fit.



How Jared was trying so hard to deal with the inevitable "track crack" and working hard to not burst into tears and scream at the little darling that contributed to it happening. To find words to express thoughts, ideas, and plans. Working together to achieve a common (ish)goal. I was amazed at such a simple play space was giving them so many things to practise.


And then, it also gave them the ability to practise playing alone (heaps of kids cant do this, needing attention and someone else to play with all the time), Amahli out with the farm set and Jared staying with his beloved trains. Both of them happy in their own worlds, chatting and organising and simply having fun :)

Yes she eats the cone without the icecream.. its breakfast. I drew the line at icecream.

So when your treasures look like they are doing nothing but creating disaster zones even a cyclobne would be proud of, take a closer look. What are they REALLY learning? You may just be surprised!!