“If you do what you love, you’ll never work a day in your life.”

I’ve always liked this quote and now, as a parent, I think about how it applies to Sofia. We all know kids are excited about the world around them and their place in it. Sofia is no different. She’s curious and loves to ask questions (lots and lots of questions!). I love that she is super motivated to participate in activities. This is a big bonus, because she’s being asked to work hard on so many areas of movement that come naturally to fully able kiddos.

Challenging myself to make all that hard work feel like play has been a primary objective of the adventures we have together.  I consider who she is as a little person and what she’s interested in, and layer that over activities that improve gross motor and fine motor skills.

Recently, we decided to have a summer camp day, and we worked together to make a list of the things we could do. She had done them all before, but somehow she approached them with renewed enthusiasm because we switched up the way it was presented to her. She made a couple choices and I made a couple choices, so that she was part of the process. I wrote them out on her small chalkboard along with a quick little drawing “lacing cards….soccer ball…ball toss…printing.” Having her participate in deciding what to do made it more meaningful to her. As we were making the list, she said “I have ideas and it’s nice to know they’re good ones.”

We spent a few hours at ‘camp’, spending about 30 minutes on each activity with a little break in between. And, when she got up the next morning, she wanted to know when camp started so she could play some more. Success!