Saturday Morning Fun

What do you do with your kids on a Saturday morning?

Amanda still needs help getting dressed in the mornings and since we’re having winter below the equator, I need to make sure she’s dressed warmly. It was dark outside and everyone was still in bed when Amanda got me up this morning. Normally, after taking her to the toilet and dressing her, I’d put on the TV and leave her watching children’s programs, but not this morning. She saw her Disney princess magnetic dress-up dolls at the coffee table and asked me to take turns with her dressing Cinderella. How could I say no? We played with that until Samantha came through. Samantha was happy to join Amanda and I took the opportunity to go and do something else.

Disney Princess Magnetic Wooden Dress-Up Doll Set

A little bit later, Amanda found me at my computer. When I saw her standing next to me, I remembered the e-book I had downloaded onto my PC yesterday called Amanda Finds Her Manners by Cindy Adkins. Amanda Finds Her Manners is about a lively girl who attends a fancy tea party and tries desperately to remember her manners. But, the harder she tries, the more she makes mistakes! This book is already a Bestseller! It's an e-book for ages 4-8 on Amazon. Sorry, but there are no illustrations, except for its sweet cover.

E-book on Amazon

Amanda hadn’t heard the story yet, so I put her on my lap and double clicked on my free Kindle app. When it downloaded to my computer, it came with three free classic books: Aesop’s Fables, Pride and Prejudice, and Treasure Island.

Amanda was very excited to hear her name in the story. At first she wondered if it was about her, but I explained that the girl had the same name. To make the story more fun for a 4-year-old, I got her to act out some of the things like to wiggle her nose when the bunny wiggled its nose. She stayed on my lap for the whole story and happily bounded off to a new activity once it was finished.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend with your family and don’t forget to read to your kids!

Related posts:

• Introducing Your Child to the World of Books
• Horse Stories – Part 1
• Horse Stories – Part 2
• Hansel and Gretel
• Dora the Explorer

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How to Handle Fear

When Amanda was younger, she used to be fearful of shadows. It’s easy as an adult to logically understand what causes shadows and to know that they cannot hurt you, but you cannot dispel the fear in a child’s mind using logic alone.

I used Amanda’s bedtime to play shadow games with her. I would put on the light and we would cast shadows against the wall with our hands. If trees cast shadows on the window, I’d pick her up, open the window and point out the trees. Also, whenever we took a walk and saw our own shadows, I would encourage Amanda to jump on mine and then I’d pretend, in a joking way, to get hurt. She would laugh and play along. The more she saw that shadows were a natural and normal occurrence, the less she became fearful of them.

The other night, Amanda and I took Benny, our dog, for a walk. It was already dark outside and the street lights were on. She wasn’t afraid, not even once. She even asked to play the jump-on-my-shadow game.

Being fearful is not only a childhood problem. Many adults are controlled by their fears. The Bible states that perfect love casts out fear (1John 4:18). One would have thought faith was the answer to fear, but it is love. It's a good topic to think about and an important one. We should ask ourselves throughout the day whether we are living out of fear or out of love. We can swap very quickly from one to the other. Let love rule and not fear.

The above photo was taken yesterday at my son's high school rugby game. It was the perfect morning for Amanda to play a jump-on-my-shadow game on the sidelines.

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