Children have an innate curiousity and an interest in things we take for granted. As lockdown is starting to trap us in the four walls of our local area, it took a short walk to our local park to realise that sometimes we limit and confine ourselves. With children, everything is a new experience no matter how many times they go somewhere, they see something they have never seen before. We do this with art galleries and paintings we may have seen a million times over, but we spot something precious each and every time. Here they are looking at a small patch of snow shouting all sorts of ideas at each other;
‘Imagine the bat laid an egg’… and…
…’The witch has left a frog in the corner seat’…and…
…(my not so favourite one)’Ew, it’s bird poo’.
I am grateful to have a comfortable, warm, safe home that has everything we need in it. Lockdown is only restrictive if I keep telling myself it is so even from home, having the technology to give us new experiences regularly and to develop our learning is a huge favour.
Tonight, instead of reading ‘Oi Frog’ to my 3 year old for the millionth time as much as I love it, I decided to do something different and asked my little one to choose three animals that she wanted in a story and I would make it up on the spot. She absolutely loved it, we recorded it and I couldn’t believe how good I was at making up this story flawlessly, Go me!
It reminded me of using public speaking skills at work and keeping an audience so my little one was engaged, it reminded me how I could use language to relate to my stakeholders and it also pushed me to know that I could think on my feet. It all made sense and she can’t stop going on about it. This was a small thing that energised me recently, and I will be doing this more from now on.
I offered my eldest the same, but she would rather listen to facts about Ancient Greece and the Spartans rather than ‘hear anymore fairy tales, mummy’. Oh well, you can’t please all of your audience. Thank goodness for voice read books.
Skills Repeat 