Chugga Chugga Choo Choo….Rosie you go over the bridge and drop off the ice cream. Thomas you help Salty move the coal cars. Chugga Chugga Choo Choo. We’ll all meet at Brendon Docks and have a party. Chugga Chugga Choo Choo.
Zachary spends hours each day playing with his trains. On his belly pushing them. Making up stories for them. He doesn’t watch too many Thomas videos anymore, he knows most of them by heart and re-enacts them every day.
So whenever anyone asks “What should we get Zachary?” The answer is always the same trains. He’s loved trains since the first day he laid his eyes on one. Now at a few weeks shy of 4, he’s still enamored with them.
Did you know the Barosaurus has stones in its stomach that helped ground up the whole branches and leaves that it ate? Or that T-rex was the largest land-based carnivore and weighed about 9 tons? I didn’t either until Jonathan’s love of dinosaurs took us from plastic play figures to books and games and endless episodes of Discovery Channel documentaries.
At almost 7, Jonathan’s love of dinosaurs has turned into a quest for knowledge. It’s amazing to see the progression of a chubby toddler clutching his plastic dinos to the 1st grader that seeks out all the books and videos he can on these giant beasts.
And then there’s Jacob. It’s not fair. You never buy me any toys. As I survey his relatively sparse toy bucket and compare it to the others, I realize Jacob doesn’t have an obsession, per se. His toy bucket is an eclectic mix of action figures and popular cartoons. There is no one thing that stands out as being his favorite.
And trust me, it’s not for lack of trying.
So while he thinks we’re remiss in our parental duty to buy him toys, the fact is while Jonathan goes straight for the dinosaurs and Zachary goes straight for the trains, Jacob goes with whatever happens to strike his fancy.
One day it’s Pokemon cards, the next it’s wrestling figures. Mini-skateboards or army men. 15 minutes of throwing a football around and then it’s riding his bike to the park.
He is partly right that I generally won’t purchase a new toy for him simply because he says he wants it. We’ve repeated the pattern too many times – buy him a toy he says he really, really wants – only to have it tossed to the side 5 minutes later because he’s grown tired of it. His attention span is short and the supply of money for useless toys is even shorter.
It’s discouraging for both of us.
What he doesn’t see are the hours I spend scouring the internet for ideas. Book suggestions, activities, and yes, even toys, that might spark his interest. And while I have found find things that he has enjoyed – I have yet to find something that continues to hold a fascination for him.
So I continue to search, in the hope that sooner or later I’ll find that one thing for him.
Do your kids have toys, hobbies or activities that they love? How do you find new things to spark their interest?
This is an original post written for World Moms Blog by Amy Hillis from Ohio, USA. When she’s not keeping up with her boys, she can be found at her own website, Transplanted Thoughts, Facebook and on Twitter @transplantedx3 .
Photo credit to the author.
Amy,
My older daughter is into dinosaurs. It’s been two years now, and I wondered if she will continue while she is older.
I don’t know what my younger daughter will be into yet, if anything, but I often wonder if she’ll have her own stuff, or if she’ll copy whatever her big sis is doing.
I think it is totally ok that Jacob doesn’t have one special interest. But, I totally see your point about the constant toys and the $$!!
I just kind of notice the things they do that they seem most happy doing and try to do things that relate to it. The dino obsession began with a song that we used to stomp around like a dinosaur to that my daughter really liked. Then, I found some dinos we had and used them whenever the song came on. Then, I found other dino related things.
I think you are doing all of this though! It just sounds like Jacob is so excited about the world that he wants to know it all!! 🙂
Jen 🙂
Hi Amy,
We have three boys and only one gets real fixations on things. He was into clowns and then pirates that morphed into knights and now he’s a serious Star Wars Nerd (his words). Our older boy just likes to take everything apart, which provides some challenging moments, and Mr Butterfly who is two just wants to do what his brothers are doing.
It is great when we can work with their interests – of course this is so much easier when they have clearly defined ones!!
Really enjoyed reading this post. 🙂