Everyday Opportunities

Posted in Parenting on Feb 25, 2010 - 11:23 AM

As the wheel stops, my four-year-old quickly counts the cherries and announces, "Three!"

She adds three cherries to her tree from her bucket and then, with a sly glance at me from the corner of her eye, adds two more.

"Hmmm... Is that three?" I ask.

"No!" she laughs and puts two of the cherries back.

I'm seeing more and more of this testing-me behavior every day. She likes to know her limits and she's all about discovering loopholes. She's learning about fairness, sharing, kindness, and ethics--as well as counting and colors, not to mention developing those fine motor skills even further--all with a game of Hi Hi Cherry-O!

Recently I sent in my six-word memoir for a project our local library is doing. After playing around with several ideas, I came up with "Stardust on rags, wonder in rucks."

Anyone who knows me knows that "stardust" is a nod to my favorite author, Neil Gaiman; but it's also symbolic. Yes, we use rags to clean up the house after so many creative (and not-so-creative!) messes, but we have to remember that when we dust, not only does that dust contain our dead skin cells, fibers from our belongings and other life tidbits; it also has actual dust from the stars.

Think about that the next time you clean house--it makes for a much more rewarding, if not contemplative, experience!

Regarding the second half of my memoir--our memoir, really--is the state of wonder in our everyday lives. We don't have to make a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela or see the Great Barrier Reef in person to experience wonder; we can find it in the rucks, the everyday nooks and crannies of who and where we are.

Can we really experience magic in a preschool board game--or, for that matter, clumps of play-dough turned into spaghetti noodles, colorful magnets on the dryer, or cut-up strips of yarn (my daughter's current favorite activity)? Could learning, growth, and development really take place in the everyday rucks?

Absolutely. In fact, I believe that's where most of it happens.

Tags for this entry:
parent involvement, games, childhood, early childhood, lifelong learning, character education

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