Boy Mama: The Second Child, Some Straws and a Pair of Scissors

Those of you with more than one child- do you ever feel like child #1 got to do everything and child #2 (or 3 or 4….) gets the short end of the string? My eldest had swimming lessons, music class, playgroups and play dates. My youngest? Well, he gets to walk his older brother to school and wake early from his nap to go pick him up. He goes with me to the grocery store, to pick up the dog food and to get anything else done that needs to be done. We do not have a car so all these things take a lot longer than they should and that leaves less time for my youngest to get “involved.” Don’t get me wrong, he is not by any means, neglected. He plays, he goes to the park and he enjoys life to its fullest- I just wish there was more for him….

Anyway, I guess the point of this post is two-fold. The first is that I am setting a new goal for myself in regards to my youngest. I am going to start doing more of those things I did with my eldest. I am going to set aside that large pile of laundry and let the dishes in the sink sit a bit longer. This will not be easy for me, but it will be wonderful for him! The second “point” is to share something he and I did today that I used to do with my eldest all the time. My eldest LOVED this activity and now, so does my youngest.

I don’t have a clever name for this activity and it isn’t rocket science, but it is simple, easy to set up (and clean-up) and a ton of fun.

Materials:

child-safe scissors
straws (cut into varying sizes and a few still whole)
a bowl
paper
drippy glue (as we call it– Elmer’s works great)

I gave my son a piece of paper, a bottle of glue and the cut up straws. At first it was all about the glue. Squeezing the bottle and watching what happens. Then moving the bottle around and creating a path around the paper. Finally, he started placing the straws into the glue and then covering them with glue! Then he did what I thought he would do (and hoped). He asked for his scissors. I gave him his scissors and a new, uncut straw and he began cutting. Straws are a great first thing to cut. They cut fairly easily and they shoot across the room when you snip them! He spent quite a bit of time cutting the straws and then went back to the glue. I took out a few other easy-to-cut items and he spent some time cutting them then placing them on the paper and covering them with glue as well. He spent about 30 minutes on this activity- he was completely focused and so happy. Well what kid wouldn’t be happy with free reign over a bottle of glue, a pair of sciscors and 100% of mom’s attention??? 🙂