Diversity of Impressions

Andrew 8 m.

In the very beginning of life the most important person for everyone is MOTHER, who feeds, nourished, cherishes, sings lullabies and introduces to the surrounding world. Everyday a baby sees his mother, her face, her arms. “So, why not to add some colours and novelties to this scene? “ – that’s what I thought when Andrew looked really puzzled after he spotted me with the towel on my head post hair wash.

 

I was amazed by his widely opened eyes and surprised face expression. I took out some of the animals’ masks, we use with Maria to study English, and every day was putting them on. I added also voice changing effect and it topped the expectations – Andrew was really surprised! He was studying his mum for quite a while. Then, his sister tried it, too, which was also really interesting and unexpected for Andrew. We tend to repeat it once in a while to enrich Andrew’s emotional experience and to have fun together! Now, of course, he is laughing together with us, a bit puzzled but obviously enjoying this masquerade.
 

As I read once, some experts advise mommies to change their appearance from time to time: bright make-up, colourful nail polish, new haircut.. this all means impressions and emotions for the baby! It’s rather interesting to live like this.

Playreport: Kids want to Play with Parents!

What is a Play according to children: Building, Reading, Role play, Exercising, Creating, Thinking, Dressing Up, Cooking

 

 IKEA has undertaken a major research-driven project to investigate the subjects of children's development and play called the Playreport. 7,933 Internet-based interviews were conducted with parents and 3,116 interviews with children aged 0-12 years during October and November 2009.

The good thing discovered during the study is that the kids preferring 9 to 1 to play with friends and their parents over watching TV. However, there were also some worrisome findings:  

·         45% of parents feel they don't have enough time to play with their children

·         26% agree that they're too stressed to play with their kids

·         46% of parents admit to feeling guilty about not spending enough time with their kids

Very interesting results were obtained when asking single, wide-ranging question that invited them to tell us in their own words, ‘If you could wish for anything, what would that be?’ It's needs to be noted that a significant of children wishes are not to difficult to fulfill.

“To be an Olympic swimmer”

 “A time machine. A library”

“A TV in my room”

 “(I wish that) we lived in New Zealand - it looks wonderful, beaches are great”

“To grow up to 16”

“My own laptop”

“Liverpool to win the league”

 “A pony”

“To live in the country and have lots of animals”

“To get a good job and be happy and have lots of holidays”

“That my school friends lived closer so that we could meet up and play more, especially at the park”

“I would wish that me and my mum could spend more time with each other and go to the park and bake things. I would also like my mum to take me to places like swimming pools and the zoo and farm. I would wish that we could all eat together like a proper family (with no TV.) I would like to do art with my mum and Christmas cards and decorations. (I would like to have some more takeaways as well.)

“To go to a dance school and to be famous and rich”

 “I’m happy as I am”

“To be a professional footballer with lots of money”

“To have my nanny back from heaven as she used to play with me a lot and let me do fun things! That's it”

“A brilliant life and loadsa friends!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

“I wish I could go a visit my big sister in America for a long holiday”

Touch-me-not

I have combined in one post three ways of spending time togetherr as they are very similar: it is mainly for observation (one cannot touch, feel it etc.), i.e. for attention training but also for fun as it does not require any great effort.

1) Bubbles, bubbles, bubbles…
This one is the most exciting and it is equally interesting for child as well as for an adult. Soap bubbles is our favourite time spending when we are in the bathroom: it is thrilling to observe colourful and multiple bubbles flying around =)). When Maria saw it for the first time, she was astonished. Now she tries to catch them but, to her disappointment, unsuccessfully.

2) Torch
This is realizable only in the dark time, which is good to do in winter period when the day time is short. We turn off the light and lie down on the sofa. I turn on a small torch and start to play with it.

Frankly, I hoped Maria would follow the light. He-he! Nothing like that… =) She needs a torch, she does everything to get it in her hands and mouth. We tried to play with it several times, but in the end seized doing that. However, maybe for some children it can become another entertainment just for a change.

3) Sun
Pity, we did not try it, as we do not get a lot of Sun in our place. The logics here is the same as with the torch: playing with the light with the help of watches or mirror. It should be interesting for small curious babies! =)

Falling Down

There is a period in almost every baby’s life, when it gets interesting for them to throw all the things down again and again until their mommies are fed up with taking things up.

Maria started to do it, too. Oooops… Of course, it is not fun for me to give toys again to Maria, but when I see how curious she is and how much she likes it, it becomes fun for me, too. =)


Perhaps, one would think that I'm spoiling the child. Intuitively I believe, it is not like that. At this age the child is actively exploring the world and throwing away various things, which are falling down with different sounds, -it is part of this unavoidable process, it is crucial for personality development.

Another similar game (which is not that tiring, by the way) was shown to me by Maria recently. I’ve noticed she is very fond of throwing down every piece of cloths she sees. Now we spend much more time in the bathroom: I’m catching the towel thrown down by Maria, when she is sitting on my hands.

Probably, it is not a win-win situation for parent and a child, but it is definitely necessary for child’s development.

Hide-and-Seek 2

The first one (Hide-and-Seek) was described in my post titled “Cuckoo”. As it was stated earlier this game develops attention of the child; teaches him/her to concentrate. The condition necessary for playing it is child’s ability to move (creep, crawl, walk) freely.

We started playing it, probably, a bit too early, when Maria was 6 months old. Now after some training, of course, she became a professional, but in the beginning she was not very much interested in the process.

After installing some new items (soap plate holder, tissue holder, towel ring etc.) in our bathroom, we’ve got some spare boxes, which I decided to use in our games with Maria. I also took her favourite toy Minnie to encourage her to participate actively in the process. I hided Minnie in one of the boxes in front of her eyes and asked her to find it. Upon successful task fulfilment, I changed the places of boxes (again in front of her eyes). As she did well, I was gradually increasing the number of boxes. The successful result of searching Minnie is always praised by me and I can notice that Maria is also enjoying her success!

I'm sure there are many ways how to play this game. One just needs to be creative!

CatchaAAA!!!!

This is a fun game for everyone. Usually there are two parties involved: Maria and smb else but most often this is me. It is a great stimulation for movement and action which is crucial in any age. So, we proceed in the following way: Maria is lazily creeping on the floor… I appear behind her and loudly go to the floor with all four telling: I will catch you now! Catchaa! Catcha! Will Catch you in a second!..

I start to approach her loudly continuing to encourage her to run away from me. She somehow understands it (maybe it is an instinct) and moves away as fast as she can. We both laugh crazily and both move – it is enjoyable!

Of course, soon I reach her but I allow some time for her to move forward. When I catch her I hug and kiss her! Then we change our roles and she tries to catch me. I am not creeping very fast to allow her to catch me to, so she can feel proud of herself!

Airplane

Definitely children need to feel their closest people; they need to touch their mums and dads. They love also tactile games.

We play a very short but efficient game (I always manage to lift Maria’s mood with this game) calling it “Airplane”. The game is as follows: we imagine that my hand is an airplane, which slowly approaches Maria with the appropriate sound, crashes into her and starts to tickle her. LOL both of us! And then start it once again while we are not bored with it =D!

Cuckoo

Cuckoo or hide-and-seek is one of the games Maria loves the most at this age. Usually it is me who hides behind the fitball, door, blanket etc. After a while with a cry: “Cuckooooo!” I show up, but every time in different place of the thing I hide behind (sometimes, though, in the same place for the game to become more interesting). Maria is excited and laughs loudly when she guesses the exact place I peek out.

Another variant of this game, Maria also enjoys a lot, is that I cover her with a piece of cloth asking "Where is Maria?", and then remove it saying "Here is Maria". Sometimes Maria is faster than I and removes the cloth herself.

We play this game several times during the day but for a very short time. I would say that this game trains attention of the child. Moreover, I have noticed that her reaction got much better, she is faster in identifying what and where is going on.