Being cooped up has started to take its toll on our crew. This week presented a few more challenges for us. In my opinion, regardless of how fun your toys are, a change of scenery is still needed every so often. We are in North Carolina and it gets rather warm so we utilized water play time outside. I assembled a fun DIY water table/mud kitchen set up, be on the lookout for a post with more information on that. The change of scenery and fresh air helped everyone’s mood. In addition to playing outside, I also set up a few more small world surprises. My four year old gets really excited when she walks in the room and finds a surprise build. When Lily found this particular small world she began singing a song:
“Making something…
is one way to say..
I love you.” -Daniel Tiger
When she began singing the song, I asked her where she had learned it. She mentioned Daniel Tiger (love that show) and then she proceeded to tell me that when I make her these small world set ups, she feels loved and happy. Cue my heart melting. It was a great reminder that there are many ways to express our love to one another and our actions have so much meaning.
This setup was a lot of fun to build, I used two of the Grimms storage trays as my floors. Listed below are the sets used to create this small world.
Sets used:
- Grimms Large Stepped Pyramid
- Grimms 1001 Nights
- Grimms Bridges
- Bauspiel Colour Street blocks
- Waytoplay Expressway
- Ostheimer Meadow
- Holztiger Oak Tree
- Papoose Spring Trees
- Ostheimer Unicorns
- Grapat Tomtens
- Grimms Friends
- Grimms Rainbow Cars
- Holztiger Animals
- Avdar Pond
These two played well together; Ethan managed to give Lily enough time to explore and play before he knocked the entire second floor walls down. He achieved this victory by placing a hairbrush in and then wanting to retrieve it. This is a common occurrence during Lily’s play and I know as a four year old that is challenging for her. We have plenty of moments where she shows her frustration but the moments where she is able to be patient and understanding I feel even more proud. Of course with that said, I always try to phrase it as “aren’t you proud of yourself?” I never want my children to feel as though they need to live up to my standards. I want my children to grow and flourish into their own true identity. I am very much a believer in being organic and I hope they always seek self-assurance versus looking for reassurance from others.
And there you have it, a wild tangent in my small world blog post. Ha! Happy playing.