Just yesterday I saw a Facebook post on one of the many Mothers Groups that I belong to ‘Describe your child in one word’. One word I thought…that is easy enough. And so it came to me, and it infiltrated my being and my consciousness – MESSY. That was the word. I happened to repeat this word “MESSY, MESSY…mess, mess” over and over, silently to myself.
Just the day before my son had decided to explore his potions. This is a common occurrence in the Munro household. The lioness observes her cub from a distance. It is difficult for the lioness to observe whilst watching the cub create havoc; however, this is natural in the Munro habitat.
He has a love for science and feels that mixing every liquid or substance he can find will create this magical event or even an explosion. So let’s explain this more in detail…
I bought him a small sand pit and a bag of sand. I thought to myself, ‘Well done, great Mom’ and patted myself on the back. A few minutes later I saw a few things leave the kitchen pantry. Flour, water, salt, icing sugar and a few other items, which I knew were neither poisonous or dangerous to my son.
A few minutes later… the Ninja Turtles gone wrong or wild walked inside. He was covered in a concoction of sand, a mixture of green food coloring and whatever else may have been in that magic “potion.” It was love at first sight and tested my sanity at the same time. At that moment, I braced myself, walked outside, took a deep breath and there it was. The sand was green, the Tupperware was green, everything was green, he was green and now he was inside about to wash everything off…
“WAIT! Let’s use the hose outside.”
It was too late.
Now what did I learn from this?
- Even baking items can cause harm to one’s mental health.
- Keeping food coloring in the house will never happen again. But seriously now, besides our green incident there have been so many perks and very necessary learning and developmental milestones met.
- Sensory processing is of the utmost importance and sand and water play a major part in this.
- His senses were consistently stimulated.
- Learning was made fun and he was entertained for hours.
Will I let him do this again?
Yes, but I think I will monitor the food coloring and keep a soapy bucket of water outside.
