Monday, August 08, 2005

Dora The Explorer

(originally posted on fishbowlinsider yahoo!group 8/8/05)
I have learned something from Dora the Explorer. I actually read it in a parenting magazine that someone else learned from Dora the Explorer but I have applied it to my own toddler and it works amazing! If you have watched the cartoon you know that Dora always follows a map. On it are distinct points she needs to reach before getting to her goal. Well, I have applied this to my errand-running with my kids. In the magazine article it suggests drawing a map, no matter how crude, showing your different stops. We don't usually do the map, mostly because I don't think of it till we're in the car, but I tell my son the list of places we're going on that outing. I ask him to look for the places, and tell me when we've got there. After we have left that store, gas station, post office, etc we say "Check!" I sing the little song that the snail, frog, and grasshopper play. Then I ask him "where do we go next?" Just like Dora! After we have finished running all the errands we'll go do something he has been looking forward to. Whether it's going to the park, or McDonalds to play, or just going home and having some fruit snacks or cookies while we watch a cartoon. I tell him before we leave the house what the end destination is, so he can look forward to that end goal. Well today I applied Dora to our walks. At one point on the trail there is a little bridge that goes over an arroyo (those huge canals you only see in the southwest, sometimes they'll have a story on the national news, and they'll show them running full). For weeks "W" has referred to this bridge as the "Troll Bridge". He asks if the "Grumpy Old Troll" is going to let us cross the bridge. I know he got this from Dora the Explorer, so I have just stretched that concept to include our whole walk. I now let him choose which direction we go when we reach a fork in the biking path, and I ask him "Where do we go next?" We have created little landmarks to look for when we're walking. First it's the "streetlight", then the "troll bridge", followed by "up the hill, down the hill", and then the "rocks" (there's this cool mural made of different colored rocks on a wall along the biking trail), the "troll bridge" again, the "streetlight" again, and then home. He points them out when he sees them coming and after we've passed, he says "Check". He lists all our landmarks we've passed and says "Check" after each one. We sing the little song too. And when we've returned home, he has a snack while I do pilates. It has really worked to keep his attention away from his little sister, which he usually likes to pester. thank you dora...
Posted by ABQ Mom :: 8/08/2005 09:59:00 PM :: 0 Comments:

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