Childhood Magic via The Water Heater Guy



Earlier this week I came across this article from the Huffington Post, I'm Done Making My Kid's Childhood Magical. In the article the author reflects on how parenting has become practically a competitive sport and how parents are trying to schedule everything perfectly in their children's lives from perfect crafty playdates to the perfect birthday parties and how exhausting it is. (My sister made the point that this is exactly the reason she doesn't read parenting magazines any more, because they just perpetuate this notion that parents have to perfectly plan everything.) Not to mention how completely pointless it is because kids don't need grown ups to orchestrate it all for them since they are more than capable than doing it perfectly themselves. Which leads me to my water heater....

 

My water heater, without my realizing it, has slowly been dying! Yesterday afternoon The Water Heather Guy came to put in a new one and he was still here when the boys got home from school. Of course the boys stood outside the door and talked the poor guy's ear off while he was working. But then Mr. Water Heater did something awesome; he gave the boys two pieces of scrap foam pipe insulation, not to mention the giant cardboard box my new appliance arrived in.

 

 

My boys were thrilled! They spent most of the afternoon until dinner "sword fighting".

 

I didn't plan it.

They didn't plan it.

Mr. Water Heater Guy didn't plan it.

 

Nonetheless, Yip and Yap adored their new toys that cost them nothing.

Cost me nothing.

And got the boys out of Mr. Water Heater's way.

 

 

Had I tried to "organize" and "create" this moment for my boys it surely would have been a flop. I can't create that magical sense of daydreaming or losing time in their imagination. Kids have to do that for themselves.

 

 

If you have the chance read the article, I'm Done Making My Kid's Childhood Magical. It's a good read for parents, parents to be, and grandparents.

 

 

Anything Can Be a Doll…Use Your Imagination!

Growing up, I was the oldest of seven children. There were four girls within about 6 years, then a 5 or 6 year break and then three boys within about four years. We always joked that my parents had two sets of children. But I was a teenager when my brothers were babies and toddlers and I remember my dad saying once how boys could make a car/truck out of anything! 

"Somewhere in the deep dark jungle," he would jokingly say, "there's a little boys pushing a rock in the dirt and going "bbbbrrrrrr" just like a truck!" 

And it's true isn't it! I've sure learned with boys that they can make trucks and guns out of just about anything. Two Legos = gun. Cardboard box = car. Of course their fascination with cars, trucks and guns just gets more sophisticated with age doesn't it? 

Case in point below! 

But I'm learning how the same principle can be applied to little girls as well!! They can make a doll from ANYTHING!! DR is often humorously perplexed by Yahoo as he listens to her play and the complex discussions and relationships that she weaves between her dolls. It's not uncommon for her to play for an hour or more in her room, all by herself, and the whole time she's talking to her dolls…or more specifically, her dolls are talking to one another. 

But this morning I realized that boys and girls are just the same….toys can be ANYTHING!! As I was getting Yahoo ready for school this morning in the bathroom, and then getting myself ready to go sub at the school today, she pulled open the drawer and started pulling out all her nail polish bottles and started a conversation!!

Yes, she was pretending that all her nail polish bottles were sisters and they were…well, I didn't follow along well enough to know exactly what was going on…but it tickled me to no end that she had no problem at all pretending that these bottles were real! Ha Ha! 

The more I think boys and girls are different the more I learn they are just the same! 

Let's be BRAVE and shoot some arrows!

When I first heard about the movie Brave, over a year ago, I was sooo excited! A Scottish princess, heroine without a prince! Finally! I was psyched and I drug the whole family to see the movie over the summer, whether they wanted to or not....luckily they wanted to. Yahoo especially liked it of course! What little girl wouldn't want to ride off on a giant horse into the wilderness shooting arrows? Sounds like a blast!  

(I just love this picture of Yap. I'm not sure if he's hollering or if he's channeling Michael Jordan with that tongue!) 

Do you know how many crappy toy bow and arrows my boys have gone through in their short 8 years? Too many to count. Finally I had to put my foot down and wouldn't let them buy any toy bow and arrows because I knew they'd be broken by the end of the day.  

A while ago I found this great tutorial on how to make bows and arrows out of PVC pipe. Awesome! One lazy weekend during harvest, when DR wasn't home, we marched down to the hardware store a block away (I'm so spoiled) and bought the supplies which weren't expensive at all, maybe $20 in all? I think we had three bows and six arrows built and shooting within an hour! They are a bit tough for Yahoo to play with but she still enjoys being out playing with the boys while they shoot the arrows. 

We built these over a month ago and the kids still play with them! Talk about durable! Well, the only part that has taken a beating is the foam arrow heads...they've gotten shredded between my kids and the neighbor kids playing with them but the dowel rod arrows are still in one piece and those shoot just fine! 

How do you like my daughter's fashion sense? She's wearing a skirt, well as a skirt and then another skirt as a shirt. I should just be thankful she's covered! 

The ONLY problem we've had with this toy is my boys tend to shoot toward the big pine tree in our front yard and the arrows get stuck a lot. 

The boys and I have had a lot of practice throwing the football up in the tree trying to get the arrows down! 

The PVC Bow and Arrow is one of the best homemade toys I've ever made! Check out the instructions at Skip to My Lou. She has great step by step photos!

What's the best Do It Yourself toy you've ever made? 

WATER BOMBS!!

Kansas summer has already arrived in the SW part of our state. The temps have been in the 90's for most of the last week or so. Curses to the heat because our town pool isn't open yet!! 

How to cool off? Even though we've received rain this spring the Ogalalla Aquifer levels have been dropping for the last three years, at least, so I don't want to go wasting a lot of water just to cool off. I've become quite the water miser since living in Kansas. 

I found the instructions here to make these sponge ball water bombs at home from regular old kitchen sponges. All you need are sponges and zip ties! Yip and Yap cut up the sponges for me and I ziptied them all together while they were searching the garage for buckets. All together we had these put together in 10 minutes tops! They're cheap, they're durable and they're LOTS of fun! Best of all we didn't use a whole lot of water while playing with these, two buckets kept us busy for an hour. 

We only had yellow sponges at our little grocery but that didn't detract from the fun! 

Yahoo only wanted to sit in the water while her brothers attacked each other and me! 

Trust me, I was plenty wet after an hour of playing! 

Ha ha! The t-shirts didn't last long. 

Yip kept yelling as he threw the bombs, "Who's the king now?" 

Not sure what that was all about. 

I'm thinking these will be a lot of fun in the pool this summer too! 

Has your summer started yet? How are you cooling off? Or how are you planning to once summer does arrive? 

I wish...for a TOY library!

Over the past year I've been lucky enough to help our local Kansas Parents as Teacher (KPATA) coordinator, Melissa, plan out play dates in our town. Kids ranging from 0-5 come into her PAT (Parents as Teachers) room in an old high school building and do all kinds of stuff! We play games, read stories, sing songs, do art projects usually following a different theme every month but Melissa is awesome and has so much energy! She does different things every month! We are just gearing up for another year since we haven't met since November. 

While Melissa has tons of energy, her position is time consuming She is always traveling for many play groups in our area and has a couple rooms in this old school building to store things but has never had boxes or shelves to put them on. It's kind of become a dumping off spot for her before she takes off to the next town and the next group of kids. 

So this last week she and I have been digging through two rooms worth of stuff; cleaning, organizing, and throwing away. Toys, games, puzzles, blocks, art supplies, Little Tikes toys (that I drool over), manipulatives, books...all this stuff that ranges in age appropriateness from birth to kindergarten. 

She has so. much. stuff. 

As we've been cleaning and going through stuff she was kind enough to let me borrow anything I wanted to! This is only a few of the things I've brought home. It's been great because we've gotten new toys that all my kids are interested in (and it's gotten them away from the tv) and I haven't had to shell out a bunch of money for new toys and games. Plus Melissa has some great DURABLE toys and games you can't find at the local WalMart. I HATE spending money on a toy or game that breaks easily or doesn't work. (Like Elefun. Hate that game. It doesn't work. Don't buy it!)

Wasn't Christmas only a month ago? How many of your kids aren't playing with their presents anymore. It's true with some of my kids' toys. I've heard the advice to rotate toys around so your kids won't get tired of them. My problem is I don't have the time/space to do that or if I do when I bring them around my kids have out grown certain toys in a short amount of time and don't want them anymore. 

Wouldn't it be awesome to have a TOY library? (Not Goodwill where everything is broken!) A place where any parent or child can go into and check out a game or toy and bring it home for a couple weeks before they have to return it! Just like a library but with toys/games instead of books. 

How many problems would that solve? Parents wouldn't have to spend money buying new toys that their kids may or may not like. A toy library would be giving low income families the opportunity to enjoy high quality toys and games! Toys could be rotated as your kids outgrow them, especially for toddlers! Just like recommending a great book to a friend, parents could recommend great toys to other parents. 

I'm not sure if or how someone could even get a Toy Library started. I don't live in one location long enough to start one myself or I'd figure it out. 

That's what I wish for though, a toy library. That would be awesome. 

The Little Land of Legos

Photo Thursday - This week in pictures

 Lots of Pooh Bear on those sick days.

Art projects when were back on our feet.

Lots of ice last week; it's all gone now!

DR brought me flowers.

Life of a caterpillar, perpetual happiness.

Photo of the Day - Little Boy and his Truck

My little boy Yap loves trucks and cars and tractors...if it moves, he'll play with it!

Who Needs Toys??

(pssst...don't forget to enter my book giveaway!)

Who needs toys.....when you have corncobs?  Yap and his "submarine fleet" in the sandbox.

He spent hours playing in the sand like this. No toys. No shovels. Accompanied only by his own torpedo sound effects.

Every summer is like this; I find him in the sandbox engrossed in the details of a world of his own creation. Focused and intent on the important task at hand. He can't be bothered by siblings or parents or dinner!

 

Who knew all that he needs to be happy is leftovers from last harvest? The world of boys continues to amaze and confuse me.