Sunday 21 August 2011

A Cupcake Party

It's been a lovely week full of fun and learning (autonomous of course ;) ) and as usual Sunday has been a home day of doing nothing very much other than plodding around, reading, doing a few jigsaws and a bit of lego. We had a friend stay for the weekend which the boys were so excited about the few days before. I'm sure he was fed up of their attention by the time he left today though lol!
There was a 'party in the park' at a local village that we had planned to go to but completely forgot about so Hayd decided he wanted to have his own party. This, he said, would consist of selling homemade cupcakes from a homemade cupcake stand. So i was assigned to the cupcake making. 12 were made but only 10 made it to the cupcake stand for some unknown reason ;) ha ha!
Hayden wanted to make the cupcake stand so he got together some wooden poles that he had for woodworking and used his hammer from his real tool kit (more on that in a minute) so nail together the poles into a stand. He wrote a sign saying 'Haydens cupcake stand' to place on the front. His writing is getting soo much better and he really seems to enjoy it when he does it. I really think its because HE is choosing to do it when he wants to, when he needs to do it to progress with things he wants to do. I love this organic, natural way of learning without anything being forced or any coercion. He sold the cupcakes for 20p each to daddy and his friends and took great delight in counting how much he'd made at the end!
Hayden loves using his tools, he has a real sense of purpose and such focus and creativity when he doing woodworking. People are often shocked when they realise he has been using 'real' tools, child-sized though they are. 'What if he cuts himself or hammers his fingers' people say horrified. I always say 'well if we had not shown him how to use them safely, if he had not watched daddy use his time after time and seen how to do it, then maybe he would cut himself, and afterwards im sure he would be more careful in future so as not to do the same again'. Children need to be able to explore and risk assess for themselves or they are likely to have trouble even as an adult with these things. If we keep them away from things, never show them how to do them then are much more likely to sneak off and try things when your not looking and really hurt themselves from lack of knowledge of how to do these things. Children are fantastic at exploring safely, and learning their own limits if they are given the freedom to do so. We can't wrap our children up in cotton wool, it does more damage than good, and it sure takes the fun out of life. If we do, and then throw them out into the world not knowing how to risk assess or using their own instincts then surely there will be problems! If we give them the space to explore, equip them with skills to do so by setting an example, learn to trust in them, and then step back and watch them navigate and discover their world then they will thrive. Of course there are accidents along the way but they are part of life, learning experiences and they usually dont make the same mistake again!
Anyway, im looking forward to quite a quiet week next week due to lack of money mainly and a tired out mama. Time for a cocoa and back to reading 'Simplicity Parenting'.





















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