A couple weeks ago, I was on the phone with my good friend. We were talking about our boys, and what they were into these days. She asked: "What does Noah like to play after school?". I stopped for a moment, kind of in total confusion. My friend had just read off a super neat list of all the things her nearly five-year-old was into: T-ball, soccer, swimming, Legos and superheros. Oh my gosh, I thought, WHAT is Noah into!? I kind of bumbled along...."Um...he likes, well, computers...and uh, he loves Shawn the Sheep, but he isn't too into the competitive sports thing yet, although we'd love him to give it a try..and uh....." Although my friend was ever so gracious and encouraging, I couldn't help feeling at a worried loss at the end of the conversation. Was something wrong with my child!? WHAT does he play? Why can't I explain what he likes to do? Am I doing a bad job as a parent, should I "get him into "something"?
Then this week, another phone call, with a different friend, and tales of her little soccer players, which is AWESOME, and their exciting Halloween costumes, a Star Wars character and a Transformer. Again, I questioned my parenting and our normality.
THEN....this morning I walked into Noah's room to find him contently doing this.
And when I watched the video, it finally dawned on me, Noah DOES do stuff, it's just his own brand of stuff, his own type of playing. Because gosh, paper cups ARE toys, and paper cup math IS playing! My kid's into paper cups! He's carried them around all week, counting and re-counting them in lots of different ways, and constructing teetering, geometric buildings and bridges.
So, this morning I have decided not to worry so much. Perhaps someday he will join the T-ball team after all, and if not, it's ok, he can always be their statistician.
More pictures and videos on my Flickr account HERE!
3 comments:
Nice paper cup arrays, Noah!
tyler likes to get big pieces of paper and write morning messages (which is something we do as a class at school). And then hang them ALL OVER THE WALLS.
Good thing I'm not trying to sell our house, because only a preschool teacher or a mom of a preschooler would appreciate it!
Awww...Noah, I love and miss you. I forgot what an amazing guy you really are these days. I loved listening to you count by two's from 2 up to 100. Genna and I miss you tons (Allison, Ian and Mitch do too) and we hope to see you soon!!
I'm telling you...he's a little genius! Way to go, Noah! Don't worry...Merry likes to write, all day long. That's her idea of fun. She writes sentences about God and her family. CONSTANTLY. My girls don't play with Bratz dolls...they don't watch SpongeBob. They play with stuffed animals and Schliech plastic animals mostly. Occasionally they break out the Barbie dolls.
Let Noah be who he is. God made him that way...and he's awesome!
We love you, Noah!!! Good counting!
Kendra, Merry and Kelsey
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