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Busy book

When my daughter was about 2 years old, a friend passed along a book called The Toddler's Busy Book. It was written by a mom of several young children and she itemizes dozens of no cost activities that make use of everyday household objects and focuses on feeding kids' imaginations without t.v (and potentially, daycare). They are all great ideas but for me I was often daunted by the toddler book.  At the time, I was cramming all my mothering between daycare pickup and bedtime and weekends.  I often ended up feeling like the book was a record of every interactive creative learning moment I was missing.

Randomly, I'd take the book's suggestions of getting my young daughter to scrub a potato(5 minutes if I was lucky) with a vegetable brush or putting random items into a box for rainy days (10 minutes tops), but my big intentions with the busy book kind of faded.  I still loved the IDEA of the book, it's just that its actual purpose was not drawn upon a whole lot.

When my daughter was about 3 and, thanks to her brother's arrival, I had a bit more time to be around, we somehow got our hands on the Preschooler's Busy Book.  This time, even at her young age, she took over its' implementation.  As soon as she could start grasping the concept of a book of fun ideas, there was no looking back. As she has since improved her ability to read, she continues to consult the busy book on a regular basis, often listing out loud things we need to gather to play post office (a rubber stamp, 1 cent stamps, forms, postcards) or make crayon soap.  The book now is indeed much fuller of possibilities because it now has an in house administrator that ensures each and every idea gets tried.  She's no longer a preschooler but the ideas are cool enough that they can be expanded upon by an older child.

I always find it amusing to see a kid herself reading a book about how to keep kids busy.  That's one way, give them a busy book!



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  1. Kate Hall6/17/2012 8:28 am

    thats awesome, and part of every mom's goal, right? get the kids to keep THEMSELVES busy! awesome.

    ReplyDelete

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