For a while I have been hearing about this 50 things to do before 11 3/4s list organised by the National Trust and really wanted to get around to reading it. To find out more, and to join in with the linky then please go over and visit TheBoyandMe. (Please note these links are by no means sponsored, and I recommend them due to the fact that I feel that it is important that children get outdoors and active).
We aren’t really a “sporty” bunch, even though I love in a house with 5 males there’s not really any interest in football, rugby, golf, etc. I think the age differences (12 years between oldest and youngest) have also meant that any physical competition would have been unfair. We are more your cross-country runner and we do like to see who can do the best jumps on the trampoline.
Wanting to show though, that sporty competition didn’t have to be anything serious we took to the park thinking that I could make number 16 – (make a daisy chain) competitive – by having the boys run and see who could get the most daisies/make the longest chain first. But when we got to the park there were too many daisies for the boys to need to run to get to them.
Instead they had a race to the nearest tree to climb (number 1 on the list).
I couldn’t believe that actually my 5 year old hadn’t really climbed trees, as my 4 year old is always climbing the one in the back garden! I used to love climbing up to the top of our big apple tree – especially when you could pick the apples.
They did attempt to make daisy chains.
I told my son how it would be easier if he picked daisies with long stems
I love how my 5 year old watched his dad intently.
Modelling (learning by watching significant others) is really important in children’s learning and self-development, so it is really important that parents lead by example, and make time with their children (especially playing outdoors). Boys are more likely to identify (and copy) what their father does, than their mother too.
I could see how the threading of the daisies could later be useful for learning how to sew.
Then they went into the play area where their natural competitiveness came out.
And on the way home the usual game of “tag”.
