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First Fridays & Symphony Sundays
Thursday, December 16, 2010 by Jeannie Fleming-Gifford
I love traditions. As I've said before, I grew up in a household without many traditions. Don't worry, I still turned out okay, but it has certainly made me embrace traditions now that I am a parent.
The holiday season is a great time to establish traditions. These days, I'm thinking about traditions that will also carry our family well past the holiday hoopla and into the new year.
Why? Although children thrive on routine, they also need new, appropriately introduced experiences. Through new adventures, young children acquire information and continue to learn and grow into their world. I need some new experiences too. Honestly, I can get bored with too much routine. Nurse, sleep, play...nurse, sleep, play...how I spent much of my first year...it was magic, but also challenging. Welcome to parenthood, I am sure you get it too.
Recently, here are two new changes in our routine I've introduced. So far, so fun.
First Fridays: We eat out once a week. It's what the budget can handle. We save these outings for Friday evenings. It is a fun way to conlude the work week. Most times - okay, every time - we find ourselve at a local eatery where we often see our neighbors and we all order up the same thing every week. (Note: our little one learned to love black beans here...if you haven't tried them with your older infant/young toddler, try them! They are a great source of nutrition and a kid-friendly finger food.) As much as I love this place (and black beans), I also wanted our family to try other ethnic foods and simply someplace new. Welcome to "first Fridays." In our house, that means it is the first Friday of the month and time to venture to someplace new. We've only done this a couple of times, but it's not only made some new conversation, it's introduced our family to new opportunities.
Next up, symphony Sundays. I try to create a traditional Sunday meal. You know, the kind you heard about that happened long ago, in a land far way, where all the family gathers and enjoys a leisurely Sunday dinner. Now, if you have a little one, you know the word leisurely and meal seldom go together - LOL! As part of my effort in simply enjoying a Sunday dinner, I began to think about things that are important to me, as well as things I want my child to be exposed to. One of these things is music, specifically classical music. Music matters. Not only is it good for the soul, it is good for development.
What are symphony Sundays? Put in a disc of classical music (borrow from the library if your collection is sans classical music), download to the ipod, turn on the music during dinner, and ta-da, a symphony Sunday! It's an easy and developmentally appropriate way to expose your child (and perhaps you) to something new. Enjoy!
I've found that sometimes the smallest new adventures are the best - both for me and my child's growth and development.
Enjoy!
