What Little Things Enchant Your Children?

My 17-month-old daughter is surprised and delighted every time a bird eats from our bird feeder – and we have a lot of birds coming by. She points and yells and kicks her legs under the table (the bird feeder is conveniently outside the window in our dining area). Her thrill gets the entire family excited.

My 4.5 year old told us earnestly after playing in our unkempt backyard, “I’m so glad they keep planting more dandelions after we pick the tallest ones. They know just when we need more to play with.” When my spouse asked who “they are”, my son shrugged and said, “I don’t know, but they are really nice to me”. I hope he soaks in this sense of benevolence and shares it with those around him.

I love to see preschool treasures. When my daughter’s preschool closed suddenly, we cleaned out her cubby and found the most adorable collection of little things she tucked away in there. Five hair elasitics (one broken), six hair clips, a head band, a homemade card from her best buddy, a valentine from another buddy, a broken bracelet with all the stray beads saved, a parking ticket from the grocery store, the remote control for her night light, the charm from a broken necklace, an old watch, a small piece of paper with dozens of holes punched out of it, several pieces of colorful paper of various colors and shapes, a kiddie set of keys, broken pieces of some sort of clay sculpture they made in class, and one googly eye.

My almost 2 yo is such a joy to be quarantined with and it’s so fun to see what enchants her. Lately the list includes watching daddy cook, “science experiments” involving food coloring, the tent we set up in the backyard, her favorite Moana songs, and anything that comes in a “big” and “little” size as she thinks they are a mama and baby pair. Yesterday she was so happy about the mama and baby cumin spices!

My 5 yo daughter Maeve has been at home with me, pretty much in quarantine, since March 13, when her preschool closed. Saturday night we decided to go for a drive and asked her where she would like to drive to. She suggested a drive-thru carwash. We went. It was simple, cost like 12 bucks. But she LOVED it so MUCH. It had all these lights that changed colors and she’s still talking about it. Her joy and delight in something so simple fed my soul!

My 3 year old is enchanted by rocks.

Of course rocks are plentiful, found most places and free. Despite all of that and flying in the face of economic theory on scarcity and value, she remains delighted whenever she sees rocks, particularly smallish pebbles.

The rock thing has bred a couple ancillary delights: dresses with pockets, and plastic ziplock baggies. Both are suitable rock carriers and so are among her prized possessions.

We went to our kids’ preschool to pickup bags of things from the teachers, who were tasked with cleaning out the classrooms. The teachers assembled lovely little bags for each kid that included personal notes, extra art supplies, completed art projects, and the spare outfits that we sent into school back in September in case of an accident. My kids thought it was soooooo nice of their teachers to gift them underpants and “new dresses.” I couldn’t break their hearts and tell them the truth…that those ratty clothes were just extras I had sent in and didn’t care about! They stripped out of their outfits and put on the “new” clothes from their teachers. Adorable.

My sister lives on 10 acres and the family recently got some chickens. One afternoon my 5 yo niece was holding one of the chicks gently above her head. My sister inquired what she was doing and her response “I’m showing her the world”.

When my son was a toddler, he loved the red straws from Sonic. Sometimes when the days were getting long, I’d drive us to Sonic and I’d get a drink and he’d get a straw and we’d sit in a quiet car for a few minutes, both happy. I can feel my spirit calming just remembering it.

My boys (ages 1 and 2) love rainbows, rhyming, butterflies, temporary tattoos, and having me make up a song on the spot about any and everything!

I was walking with my nephew (age 3) a couple months ago outside, and he suddenly goes – “Awww!!!” I asked him what he was looking at and it was a smaller than normal size door on the side of a building. He thought it was so cute!! Haha.

FaceTiming with my mom’s cats! My 1yo hears a meow and will toddle over to the phone just to see the cats.

Bubbles
Sidewalk chalk
Puddles
Car Wash
Whipped cream…in a can!
Candlelight

My 14 month old boy loves remotes, Youtube (don’t they all?), stairs, watching tv 20 cms away from it (uff), bread and most of all… water! He gets excited when he sees his bottle and always gets a sip. Always. :)

My 2.5-year-old daughter will drop everything if she sees an airplane. She does a little dance and yells (on repeat) “Airplane!” at the top of her lungs.

My 5-year-old son loves to build and creates fantastic structures with a combination of legos, wooden blocks, random boxes, nearly airless balloons, pillows and blankets.

I love this so much. My 3 and 5 year olds love rubbish trucks, and those trucks that have a giant vacuum cleaner hanging off the back like an elephant’s trunk. We’ve just moved to a house with a fire (it’s winter in New Zealand) and they love collecting dry cabbage tree leaves to start the fire with, and watching me light the match and get the paper burning. They love boxes, pushing furniture around (so annoying!), and collecting sticks and stones when we’re out. We found a broken mirror ball when we were biking, that was AMAZING!

My 15 month old finds putting the lid on anything the most engaging activity ever, drinking orange juice (a rare treat), asking for the fan to be turned on, and moving slippers and shoes around the house.

One word…Uranus, of course pronounced “Your Anus” because it’s hilarious.

I love this post and others like it. Please keep it up!!!

My daughter is 14 years old and she is proof that when “Make believe” is encouraged young it doesn’t have to stop. She and I just returned from a lovely mother-daughter trip to Boston, a first time visit for her. She was enchanted by Boston’s lovely Public Garden so we settled under the shade of a beautiful tree and sat there – for over an hour… not talking, and no phones out. After a while I asked her what she was doing. She told me she was imagining living on the little duck island and how she would live there and govern all the little ducks and naming them all…. and what being a duck there must be like. I loved seeing her imagination at work – even as a teenager.

This post and comments have been so great to read. I love the imagination on my 3.5 year old twin boys right now. They are always acting things out together (scenes from Moana, etc.) and asking my husband to act things out with them. Tonight’s dinner, they asked him to be “the park”. My husband is much more creative than I pretended to be a swing, the bathroom, etc. I don’t know how this started but one of them is also really into rats, including the giant gross blow up union rat we pass each day. He sleeps every night with a stuffed animal he named Ratoni :)

We have also had the banana meltdown several times in our house. One of my favorite lines from my son Sam was when he lost it at breakfast and yells “mommy, Eli said strawberry to me!”

I’ve thoroughly enjoyed readings all of these comments. Aren’t kids the absolute best?
My 16month old is currently obsessed with a wooden chair we bought him at a garage sale for $5. He “reads” to himself all the time on that chair. And freaks out (positively) whenever he sees any vehicle bigger than ours: “TUCK!!!” (first word?). He’s also just discovered kissing, aka licking. But by far, BUBBLES make him the happiest. It’s so much fun and my heart bursts every day.

I sent my husband a text the other day saying that I will be so sad when our four year old stops saying, “Ta-Da!” every time she poops.
She is also fascinated by the paper mill down the river from us. We were driving by it and she said, “Huh! I figured it out! That’s where they make clouds!” (Because of the billowing smoke/steam from the stack).

My 1.5 year old loves it when I shake out the new garbage bag before putting it in the can. She always says “Mama!” afterward in this admiring tone of voice. It’s to the point where if I take the trash out while she’s not around I will wait to put the new bag in so that she doesn’t miss it.