making his own magic

One of my favorite mommy-blogs is always going on and on about play-dough.  She has bagillions of recipes for various colors, scented play-dough, play-dough with glitter, etc.  It always looks amazing.  And her little girls are always doing amazing and creative things with it.  But the problem is that my little boy isn't wild about play-dough the way her little girls are.  He likes it fine- once and a while- mostly for mashing and smashing.  But doesn't ever seem to notice the color or the scent (boy-girl thing?  who knows).  It just doesn't capture his imagination and creativity.

But recently he has started getting interested in leggos- and I see that same creative spark and imaginative play emerging.

I love watching him play with his leggos- tongue out, full body concentration.

From the beginning I have tried to steer clear of toys that whiz and bang and play songs.  At first it was out of a selfish desire to not hear all of those obnoxious noises over and over and over and over and over.  But as I have watched Jonathan grow without them, I am really glad that he is learning to make his own magic with simpler toys.  Imagining garbage-trucks out of cardboard boxes and a boat out of the laundry basket requires him to learn how to stir up his own creativity in a way that banging on his ball-popper doesn't.  And, for him, leggos are a great outlet for imaginative play.

We build a lot of vehicles- airplanes, cars, trains.  And a lot of things to be knocked down or crashed.  (The slide has become the crash-test location of choice.)

And while I still help him a bit with the original creations, he is usually able to play "mechanic" after the crashes!