Seriously?

Another babysitting day today. Joyous. So I usually let them reign terror in terms of playing because in my opinion, it's easier to clean up one big mess than to continuously nag them all day to clean up every mess. Which I even did, but they seriously just blatantly ignore me. So based on the picture above, at the end of the day...I'm like-seriously?? And this was taken after I fixed an overturned chair ottoman thing.

My parents always had my sister and I cleaning. Naturally, I therefore grew up to hate cleaning up toys, but I still naturally do it. I have this OCD thing about it now. But I cannot get these kids to clean if my life depended on it. Here are some clever tries, but to no avail:

Me: are you guys cleaning in there? (after I asked them too 10 minutes ago while I'm making lunch)
4 year old- "nooooooooope."

(later in day)
Me: let's have a cleaning contest! Who can pick up the most toys??
4 year old: "not me. Ask my sister though she can."


Me: are you cleaning?
4 year old: noooo. I'm too busy playing.


*I start to pick up toys myself*
boy: HEY! I am playing with that!
Me: You haven't played with it in over an hour. You're playing with the farm animals over there.
Boy: Well now I'm playing with this.
Me: Okay. I'll go clean up the farm animals.
Boy: If you clean up one more toy, I will make this whole room dirty!

^ I stopped cleaning up after that. I don't get paid enough for that.


Me: can you help me pick up the Legos?
4 year old: "but I didn't even mess up the Legos!"
Me: well, sometimes we have to help clean up messes that other people make.
Boy: this is so unfair.



I agree little man, I agree.

Legos

I wonder when kids play with Legos or blocks, if they have a particular idea in mind? Or if they are just putting pieces together and imagining what it is they have now put together? Or if they are just put random pieces together just to see if they fit? Who knows. Maybe each kid is different. Maybe they are doing all of the above. I think they are creating as they go, because kids are strongest in imagining. I think for kids, one object can morph into many as long as they use it differently. Ryan, the kid I babysit (he is 3) made a tower of blocks, a single line of small blocks that went straight up. Id put in a picture, but my phone only let's me put in one pic per blog. Anyway, I consider myself to have a strong imagination. However this is a list of the things I would think this line of blocks to be, ( the mind of a 22 year old):
- a tower
- a building?
- a snake maybe, if you lay it on it's side?
- a tunnel?

Then I interviewed Ryan who was building next to me. What is that?
- first, word for word, it was a "master inside" ( I'm still working on figuring out what he meant)
- next he put it on my head and it was a funnel for my brain, lol.
-next he added a piece and then it was a dragon in an airplane!

The imagination kids live off of just fascinates me. They have nothing else- no clouded mind of an adult. They aren't clouded by concrete thoughts that bother adults- that a line of blocks can't be a dragon in an airplane. We think logically because that's what we know and that's how we are comforted.

Sit down and with Legos and make something. Anything. Do you find yourself creating something you have in mind? Or creating as you go? The first time I sat down with the kids to build, I wanted to build an airplane and I found myself frustrated because it didn't really look like an airplane. But today when I started to build, after many many times of building the last couple months, I noticed something different. I just started putting pieces together and hoped for the best. I loved it. So much less stressful.

I think we could all use this as an analogy in life as we go about our day. Maybe it's not so important to go about a task with a specific idea in mind, but more important to keep an open mind and to put pieces together. Let your subconscious create and watch what happens. Let go and try it sometime...

I would love to interview many different types of people as to what a simple Lego creation could be. I would ask a toddler or two, an elementary school student, middle school, high school, college, adult (single), adult (married), adult (with children- young), an elderly person and lastly, an elderly person suffering from dementia. I think that would be an interesting response. I would love to create this study. It would be a lot of fun. :-)

Go Legos!