Anyway, the latest one I've read asked how you get creative with your kids. I had to stop and wonder about this. With 17 month old twin boys and, shall we say, a rather needy four year old daughter, do we get creative? Or is it just a feat of creativity to get through the day around here? I mean really.
But then I thought about my expressive girl and her amazing ability to tell stories. Whatever books we read or movie she sees, she seems to internalize some portion of that story line and then weave it into her own story later on. She has an amazing cast of stuffed animals, really the only toy she wants to play with, and she could tell stories with them for hours. She can often be heard for hours after the lights have been turned out telling her stories.
Now, as a former teacher I had all kinds of great plans for creativity when she was younger. Arts and crafts ideas like some crazy pumped up Martha Stewart on steroids... but that girl. She was having none of it. She cried when I first introduced her to finger paints. To this day drawing or coloring is a chore that she'd rather not be bothered with. Building things? Nah. She'll tell her stories, thank you.
Her other interesting creative expression is to actually be the animal that she's interested in. We had a long period of time in which she was a baby reindeer. Strange, but true. And man was that reindeer cheeky. This game can, at times, be embarrassing. She can't seem to escape the role playing and will at times bark at people at inappropriate times. Once she was being a cheetah and using it as an excuse to be a little too rough with her baby brothers. (You know, the old cheetah behaviors- scratching, roaring,etc.) When I told her she needed to be a nice cheetah, a happy cheetah she replied, "Mom, I am happy. I'm happy that I found some meat." Oh- easy enough then.
So we play together. Tonight I was a snake and she was a lion. An interesting matchup, no doubt. And funny because she can relive the same scenario over and over and over. But I guess that's how I encourage her creativity. Play. Give her opportunity to express herself in whatever way she needs to. Keep offering her stories to learn and grow from. And offer up her little brothers as meat if necessary.
Griffin is often a puppy. He scrambles all over the house barking and panting. I am happy enough to play "fetch" with him for a few minutes, but by hour #2, I am over it. He can go on half the day.
ReplyDeleteHe also likes to play his own version of chess, involving lining up his plastic animals in opposing rows and having them fight. He has to tell me who wins. I would've guessed that a bear beats a rabbit, but I was wrong. The running narrative is always interesting.