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When Things Don’t Go the Way you Planned

Last week I put together an activity for J that he loved and kept his attention for the longest time (which is my barometer for the success of an activity).
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So I thought I’d present the activity again..but this time I’d use the light table!  “Ha!”, I thought, “if he loved it before he will love it even more now!”

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WRONG!
He played with this for about 5 seconds before he ran off to play with his blocks.  sigh

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Sometimes the best plans (in my head) just aren’t all that interesting to J.  I used to fret a bit about this and tried to coax him back to the activity or show him how to play with it the way it should be played with.
It’s moments like this that I have to remind myself that it’s not about me and what I want.  It’s about J and his time to play.  Play is not play when it’s forced.
So, I let him go and play with his blocks and learn from that instead of pushing him to the light box activity.  He had a lot of fun with his blocks that day and made quite and impressive tower!
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by Amanda Leave a Comment

Filed Under: Parenting Tagged With: messy play, Parenting

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Comments

  1. Having Fun

    January 24, 2012 at 10:31 pm

    Some days are just off days. My eager to learn 4 year old didn’t want to do anything learning today. She dug in her heals and was obstinate. So I decided to let the day go and let her play. Sometimes no matter how much planning you put into a activity it just doesn’t work out. Kids will have days they just want to do what “they” want to do.

    Reply
  2. Growing a jeweled rose

    January 25, 2012 at 3:46 am

    Ha, isn’t that the way it goes! I just adore the photo of your son btw… too perfect!

    Reply
  3. tahlia @ the parenting files

    January 26, 2012 at 7:14 am

    too funny… yep, blocks and building and all things related seems to be the way to go. Nice try though 🙂

    Reply

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