One week until school starts. I feel terrible. August was going to be the month Maggie and I had daily adventures. There have been adventures, certainly, but nothing too fun for her. Tomorrow we are heading to the zoo, though, so that will be good. In the meantime we are creating adventures wherever we find ourselves.
Maggie has been asking for various things on her talker and I am trying to comply for a couple of reasons. I want to make her happy and I want to encourage her to understand the power of communication. It's been a learning experience for both of us.
Maggie loves to "cook" as she calls it. That means she hangs out in the kitchen throwing dishtowels and lids to pots while I prepare a meal. When I asked her to point to the stove and she just looked lost. We learn through experience. Maggie sees the stove all the time and knows that I cook on it, but she didn't have any reason to connect the word "stove" to the big box on the kitchen. How often do you actually call something by its name. When I said where is it "Hot" - she pointed to the stove immediately. Of course that makes sense because I always position her where she can't reach it and tell her she can't touch that because it's "Hot".
It's time to start explaining things as I go along. I used to do that all the time when she was little, but sort of dropped the habit. Now that she has a deeper understanding of things, it's time to start again. When I made macaroni salad the other night (because Maggie kept saying "picnic") I had her put her hand in the cold water, and had her feel the macaroni before I cooked it. I told her it was going in the very hot water (which I did not let her touch, thenkyouverymuch). Then I gave her the cooked macaroni to squish in her hands. It was as thought I could see her understanding the process. She thought it was hilarious when at dinner I told Steve and Tim that we were having picnic food because Maggie requested it and that she helped make the macaroni salad. Their ooohs and ahhs were right on the mark.
Today our adventures will have to be close to home. Tim is taking the car all day, so Maggie and I will be forced to hang in the neighborhood. That's fine. Considering we had an adventure in our own kitchen, we know there are plenty of things to explore and learn right here.
We may go wild and head downstairs to the washer and dryer. It's time she started earning her keep around here.
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