The Play Agenda - Special time with T

I got to have some special time with T today whilst the boys were at summer playscheme. With both boys homeschooled, time with just me and T is indeed a rare moment.

She seemed a little grumpy so we headed out into the garden and, inspired by Leoarna's post, added some shells and water to her sandpit, then put her in it (She usually plays sitting just outside the sandpit - so this was new for her).

We were having so much fun, even the cat came over to join us!

It is a shame how this sort of thing is now more of a special occasion thing because there was a time when the boys were younger that messy play / sensory play and arts and crafts was quite literally non-stop all day long in our household.

I used to find it really sad when I heard things like "my child just used paints for the first time ever" (and the child was aged over 3 and had just started preschool and have never been allowed paints at home) and "You are so brave letting them do play-doh at home" (i.e. that parent never would because of the mess factor).

But now I find that I have started to become like that - not quite to that extent - and I really don't want to be like that but so many hours of my day are taken up with little jobs clearing up after the kids (and believe me the house is FAR from clean and tidy - I just mean trying to stay on top of things like cleaning up big spills on the floor and food splattered on the walls, picking up another piece of tissue that has been shredded into a thousand pieces, replace the loo roll that has been dragged all round the house so efficiently that it would put the Andrex puppy to shame and so on).

So when it comes to those special activities that require just that little bit more effort and planning, I find myself avoiding them rather than embracing them the way I used to. Hopefully recognising this will help me start to embrace those opportunities again with T so she gets to do a lot more of the things that J and D enjoyed when they were younger.

Linking up with The Play Agenda over at Not Different But Interesting.