By the 10,000 hour rule mentioned in Malcom Gladwell's Outliers, which says one becomes an expert at a given task after practicing for 5 standard American work-years, I'm an expert at parenting my children at least twice over. Conservatively, I parent 12 hours a day. Now there's at least one child awake 14 hours per day, but sometimes they go to the YMCA childcare or family watches them overnight(s) (THANK YOU!), and when it was just Scott there was a nap break, and they used to go to day care a bit. Still, easily 25,000 hours of parenting accomplished.
So as an expert at my children -- not every child, certainly -- I want to share a little tip: priming the pump. Luke's a pro at this. I saw him do it with his little cousin before we were even parents. Instead of telling the child to do something, or why or how to do something, he just starts entertaining himself with that something where the child can watch. He draws, or builds, or does Legos. No lecture on why it's good. No forced enthusiasm. Just fiddling in an open way. You don't lecture the water until it flows up the pipe, and you don't give it a pep talk, you just draw some up and let the rest follow.
Maria Montessori talked about this approach in her work, describing it as the teacher charming the children into paying attention. I've been trying it more and it's good for everyone. It's especially fun in big, open areas like the blue foam block building sites you see at childrens' museums, or when looking for something fun to do on a dull day at the playground.
What do you think? Do you try this? Does it work for you?
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