Free food was a great excuse for a morning excursion to our favorite fast food place. Li'l Girlie is beyond enamored with Chick-fil-A...the nuggets, the cows, the play area, not to mention getting to drink milk out of a cute container with a straw. All happy stuff in her book.
On this trip, we discovered the cow clock table-toppers, which immediately drew Li'l Girlie's interest. We had fun moving the cow's arms and practicing counting with the numbers on the clock. We practiced our moos and talked about what cows like to eat and what they do. Between that and the play area, we ended up spending almost all morning at Chick-fil-A.
And why do I share this?
Well, the first paragraph is all about the free food, of course. The rest of it is what Miriam Huffman Rockness, in her book A Time for Play - On Childhood and Creativity describes as fanning the flames of a child's interest. As parents we can push our children to have interest in certain activities, and sometimes our child will glom onto them and have a ball, but what really sparks a child's creativity and desire to learn is parents latching onto something their son or daughter is already excited about and helping them explore that interest.
A boy who loves dinosaurs but doesn't care to read much will readily devour books his parents supply to him about T-Rex, Apatosaurus and Triceratops and learn huge vocabulary words to describe the objects of his obsession. While that interest may not lead him into being a palientologist, it just might. Or, at least along the way, it's teaching him both that his parents care about his passions and that there are fascinating worlds of knowledge to explore.
Right now my daughter loves chicken nuggets and cows. Who says we have to eat and run when there's an opportunity for learning through something she already thinks is fun.
