toys! toys! toys! — list writing

Most children–even those who might dodge homework and would rather pick up a baseball instead of a pencil–are interested in writing a Wish List for Santa at this time of the year.

I know my kiddos get all starry-eyed any time they get their hands on a sales circular when the Sunday paper arrives. So I decided to have Maddy and Owen go through the fliers and make a Wish List for the holidays.

I had them use the skinny, unimposing, kind of unusual rolls of receipt paper that my amazing mother-in-law brought over for us a while back, and I just wanted Maddy and Owen to write, write, write.

• Toy List Writing: The sales circulars were spread across the table, and I said, Okay my friends. Let’s look through these advertisements and circle everything and anything that we want. I mean–any and every toy you think you’d like to have. Circle the toy and words near them.

The directions were simple enough, and Maddy and Owen–as one could imagine–went toy-circling crazy.

Maddy’s list.
Yes, it includes a dog and a cat. No, she will not receive either.

After we examined the toys, talked about what they had their little gimmie-gimmie-gimmie eyes on, I said, Now let’s use these markers and write down all of the toys we want. The rolls of paper are skinny, so your lists might get pretty long.

Maddy understood and immediately got rolling, but Owen needed a little more direction with what words to write down on his list. Soon, it became more of a ‘who can write the most words’ kind of event, but as fast as it began, it was over–when we heard naughty Golden and Guinea making strange noises and speeding around in their cage.

Hey–it was something while it lasted. . .

My goal here was not letter-writing; that’s a whole other super-important lesson for another day.

It was not gratitude, giving, or kindness; I didn’t have time for that today, although now looking back it might have been nice for them to make lists for gifts they’d like to give friends and family members–and it might have been just as easy.

Really, my focus for the ten minutes I had was to get Maddy and Owen to write. Plain and simple. I wanted them to practice their letters–uppercase or lowercase, I didn’t care–just find the important words and copy them. That’s it.

So that was our teeny-tiny–borderline pathetic–bit of learning for the day, but I’ll take what I can get at this crazy-busy-fun-nutty-completely-magical-and-exciting time of the year.