The best Toy in the world

I was reading this article on babycenter and I absolutely agree!

I am by far the bestest toy in the world for my kid. I am sure you’d agree too after you read what I have to say. Kids learn a lot from their parents…especially the parent who is the primary caretaker. Give it a thought… Why is it that most kids these days are crazy about laptops and cell phones? Because they watch their parents doing just that! My son has to take his hand to his ear the minute we set foot out of the house. He ‘calls’ up his imaginary friends and tells them where he is going. 🙂

I was at my doctor’s the other day and she looked at my sulking son and nodded with, “He didn’t want to come because it was his TV time, right?” Yeah….

It is not all bad lessons all the time… The best thing I have found is that my son learns a lot from me… if that learning is carefully directed towards constructive more age appropriate and educative purposes, then you have a genius on your hands! Using yourself to entertain kids is also the cheapest and fastest way to keep them engaged for hours. I have found that I can let him tag around with me while I go around my daily activities. I wake him in the morning, let him brush alongside me. We both watch each other brushing and the longer I take to brush, the longer he is brushing… Okay so sometimes it goes a little too long but Hey! the teeth are clean and so no complains! I make breakfast… he breaks the eggs, I beat em..he pours the milk and there is interest in food being created. We talk about eggs and milk and flour and what is happening… he is getting a lesson and doesn’t even know it.

I read a book and he pulls out his own to sit by my side… I note that he wants to have the exact posture and a cup of ‘something’ too. When my lil girl was alive, she’d do that too. We’d all stretch ourselves in the Diwan (that I had created) and I remember my hubby would walk in and pull out his camera phone…

I sing a song.. a rhyme… a dua…they learn.

I read the Quran… he pulls his Alphabest out…

I pray…he prays.

I remember my daughter would pull out the vacum and push it around at clean up time. Son would make it a point to get the dust pan and brush if he made a mess around. Sometimes we had big problems with him pushing the broom all around the house but well… he is just a baby himself.

I write the grocery list or my diay…he scribbles too. She’d scribble too. Now I look at her scribbles and run my finger over it…in her memory. 🙂

When we go shopping, he has to shop too. Bringing stuff..pushing the cart around… checking the stuff in… paying the bill. It is all part of learning things…

I guess we prepare them for Life when we play with our kids. We also make memories… beautiful ones. 🙂