Settin' On the Couch | Previous Challenge Entry

how it works

TITLE: Settin' On the Couch | Previous Challenge Entry
By A Mattingly
01/17/18
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Night five of a six-day family gathering, we sat enjoying a who-done-it show on TV. In the back room, a young mother is tucking her two and three-year-old sons in bed. Here in the living room we have an inattentive eight-year-old stretched out on the couch, unable to entertain himself without cartoons blasting in the background. Not being an enthusiastic fan of animation, and believing the all-day playing of cartoons is not good for anyone, I had turned the channel to adult programming for the evening. Given the choice of a few kid-friendly shows, Jade refused them all and lay on the sofa in protest. His Aunt Kim, the person responsible for him during this visit said, “You have plenty of things you can do, but you are choosing not to do any of them.”

It had been obvious from day one of Jade’s visit that there were only a few things he wanted to do. One, to keep the two pre-school boys running rough and rowdy through the house, and two, playing with his toys while not sharing with the younger boys. Lastly, he enjoyed playing with the toys and games of his young cousins instead of more age appropriate activities. Yes, entertaining Jade during the past week had been a challenge.

The first full day after everyone’s arrival, I pulled out what few toys I had that would be of interest to young boys. Having only daughters, the choices were limited. Mixed with the things they received as Christmas gifts and brought from home, there was plenty to keep the boys entertained.

Later that day, I was thinking that painting with Aunt Angela would be fun. I had outfitted each with a painting smock and got the supplies out. Okay, it’s been a while since I entertained preschoolers…. more time was spent preparing than spent crating their works of art. Storytime went better for the young ones. Ben discovered a book he enjoyed, wanting it read to him over and over. Jake, however, refused to participate in art or reading. He did play with the pre-school puzzles, but not the ones for boys his age.

“Hey, Jade, you want to check out a book on ships?”, I asked. To my surprise, this was of interest to him. However, after showing him the book on ships plus other books on vikings, architecture and construction that were filled with colorful illustrations, puzzles and things to make or build, all books went untouched. Jade never even opened them. The same was true for the magazines on volcanos, space, cowboys, knights and castles from my Kids Discovery collection. Not even pulled off the shelf to look inside. As a third-grade teacher, my students loved these. Being unimpressed with his options, provoking of the preschoolers continued.

Getting a little stir-crazy from being held prisoner in the house by frigid temperatures for a couple of days, we loaded up the cars with kids, sisters, daughters and in-laws. We left the country behind and headed for a science discovery museum in the city. Riding out an earthquake, drilling for oil, playing with weather and technology gadgets began the feeding frenzy of knowledge. What a fun afternoon! I was hoping the cure for Jade’s boredom would be curiosity. The museum sparked some interest, but still nothing back at the farm.

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