...and I get out some dry rice, put it in a nice big plastic bowl, and let my little guys run their cars and trucks through it. I must have gotten the idea from some wise homeschooling mom, because certainly this kind of tactile play is good for the developing brains of toddlers and preschoolers, right?
I do this so infrequently that Shav and Tobin think it's a real treat when it does happen, and it buys me an hour or two of basically uninterrupted time in which to focus more intensely on Josiah and David's schooling. Sounds great, doesn't it? Well...
Of course, I'm smart enough to know I should put an old towel under the bowl...just in case a few grains of rice spill.
Yep, sometimes I'm brave. But days later, as I'm still finding grains of rice under couches and in toy cars and whole handfuls of it in the car container, I mutter to myself, "Brave? Or stupid?"
You decide. ;-)
Whichever it is, I'm not ____ enough to do it! I'm barely "brave" enough to have a sandbox in the yard, and then, I insisted that it be an elevated one to discourage the kids from sitting in it. I don't like sand everywhere in my house and all over my kids. I still have some sand to deal with, but this rice operation makes me think my sand issues don't even measure on the meter.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure your kids think you are a fantastic mom (and so do the rest of us)!
This is true bravery! But.... real mummy-ing too ;)
ReplyDeleteThe rice can be swept away - the memories never will x
very brave :) and what a cool momma you are !!! Something I've done in the past is I buy blow up pools at the end of the summer and on brave days I put one in the kitchen with the bowl of rice....they sit in the pool and the rice stays in there too....I have also been known to lay down an old towel or blanket put the pool on top of it and fill it about a few inches with warm water my littles think indoor swimming in the dead of the winter is so cool....then I just dip the water back into the sink when we are done......and really if it splashes on the floor....we just mop :) but inflatable pools serve many purposes and the kids love it!
ReplyDeleteYou are so brave! I have only tried this a few times. Rice can be found for days after we do this all over the kitchen.
ReplyDeleteI think it means you're the kind of mom who is brave enough to do a stupid thing so her kids can have a boatload of special, rare-treat fun! LOL!! (And I mean "stupid thing" in the nicest way possible!) I think it's great that you do that, even if it makes you second guess the brave vs. stupid factor :P And really, rice is small potatoes compared to the Sterilite container of SAWDUST our brothers would collect and bring into the house to build their roads and dig in and spread around. Talk about a mess!
ReplyDeleteI want to do this kind of thing with Susannah, too. Not yet though. I'm sure right now she would just stick her hands in it and violently flail them back and forth and rice or beans would go EVERYwhere.
Sammy loves to play w/ those as well.. We have a rule.. i put down a sheet (queen) if I see a piece of rice off the sheet I take it away ;-) He does pretty good with this.. might be worth a shot
ReplyDeleteThese winter months can make Mama's much braver when it comes to entertaining little ones : )
ReplyDeleteLast winter I made the sad mistake of putting a sand box in the house....
Our vacuum cleaner got a real work out! Ha!
But THIS winter I have made the girls a "bean box" full of all kinds and colors of dry beans and that has been a huge success!
So there is an idea : )
Gotta laugh at it...else, if it were me, you just might cry if you found ONE MORE piece of rice hidden in the hardwood floor crack. ;)
ReplyDeleteSame. Here. Every once in a loooong while I think that some beans n' rice in a bucket is a great play thing. Then I spend the next 6 months cleaning up rice and I wonder what the tarnation I was thinking and vow to never do it again. One time I thought I was being smart and I swept the whole mess out the door. A few weeks later I had little beans sprouting up all over my yard. *shaking my head*
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