The Interests Thread

[physmom]

I thought it would be fun (and helpful!) to make a thread discussing our kids latest interests (ok, I get that might be similar to the what are they doing thread but I meant this more as a way of getting and sharing ideas vs. having a place to keep up with their milestones).

Like I mentioned in a thread awhile back, DD has a lot of obsessions (or interests, whatever you want to call them) and I'm just struggling to keep up! It's like a like I'm chasing after an Olympic runner and I just ate a Thanksgiving meal.

Anyways, here's DD's current interests (well, the top two at least) and what we're *trying* to do to appease her curiosity:

Airplanes (and helicopters and cars and motorcycles and bikes...)
- we got a large cardboard box that her latest batch of diapers came in and turned it into an airplane using construction paper. It looks pretty cool! I even found a wheel on an old toy of hers so she can drive it.
- she has a toy car that we take around the block. There's a road that isn't too busy that has benches along it. We sit on the road every couple of days eating grapes and watching all the vehicles go by. It also happens to be a great spot for viewing airplanes.
- she has a few books mentioning airplanes et al, but I'm still on the lookout for a good one maybe that's more descriptive but not too wordie, gives a history, etc?

Dancing (I posted about this in the toddler forum but didn't get much of a response). DD LOVES movement, she's really, really coordinated for her age (no clue how, DH and I are definitely nothing special when it comes to sports but a couple of generations back there was an Olympian in my family, so maybe there's where she gets it from?).
- she does exercise videos with me
- she's picked up some dance moves from other relatives
- I really, really wish I could sign her up for some sort of toddler dance class but we just don't have the money. I'm so not the person to teach her anything like this.
- we play soccer around the apt, she can dribble pretty well! And we're watching the world cup, she loves yelling "goal" every time she sees one (I wasn't too happy about that during the USA-Ghana game today, though...)
- every blue moon she gets to watch Angelina Ballerina and she likes to imitate the kids that dance after each episode (and gets mad if I don't show her how to do it!)

Feel free to share yours and even you have any suggestions for me I'd love to hear them!

[greenmamapagan]

DD has always loved anything movement based too. We started a mother & toddler yoga class when she was the age your DD is (I do mean started, I found an instructor, and some other interested parents, told the instructor what we wanted). When she discovered ballet at around her second birthday that was it for anything else. She's just now finding some balance with ballet and other things at 4. Last year and some of this year she did two baby ballet classes a week plus countless hours of watching and dancing along to Swan Lake and The Nutcracker (also others but those were her favourites). We avoided Angelina Ballerina because I didn't like the bullying in the episode I saw. You can find heaps of ballet videos on youtube. Including lots of little children's dance classes. DD's favourites were
* Cygnet pas de quatre (four small swans) from Swan Lake, she liked to compare versions of these. Some are faster/slower etc there is also a funny version danced by men where one always does the opposite which she found hilarious
* A masterclass of the above taught by Darcey Bussel (previous prima ballerina at convent garden). She loved this one.
* Anaheim Ballet. They have a youtube channel with all sorts of instructional videos from how to tie pointe shoes or make a neat bun to secrets of great pirouettes.
DD also liked to read about ballet so we now have an extensive library ballet books lol. One of her favourites was
http://www.penguin.com.au/lookinside...=9780143303763
Although this is the child who at 3.5 would beg for the Oxford Companion to ballet for a bedtime story so anything would do really
Gosh, I've prattled on quite a bit. You're right it's nice to be able to actually talk about their interests!
Anyway, if you have a mini-ballerina check out youtube

[crowcaw]

I don't post on here but the ballet made me want to write. My twins became interested in ballet around 3; full length videos of everything (not being terribly cultured myself I'm now familiar with so much more), dancing constantly, dance classes, etc. One thing they enjoyed was "ballet cards." I grabbed images of various ballets and performers from the web and annotated and printed them on 4x6 photographic stock. The girls "collected" the cards in an album that was/is a prized possession, still dragging it out a year later. This week was a special treat for them; as part of a trip to NYC they got to see Swan Lake performed by the American Ballet Theatre (as well as Billy Elliot on Broadway -- they also love musicals). They recognized the prima dancing in Swan Lake as the same ballerina from a video of Don Quixote. Also, Darcy Bussell has a series of children's fiction books called the Magic Ballerina with stories about a heroine who, with the help of magic ballet shoes, travels to Enchantia and saves the day for different ballet characters. We went through a spell where they loved these books.

The use of cards for their interests has persisted beyond ballet; right now we're on the waning side of a Greek Mythology phase during which they collected Greek gods/godesses and heroes/heroines. Currently they're liking mythical beasts and creatures and we're doing cards of beasts from different stories. They're also really into reptiles so we're going to start using the same idea to make a local field guide.

[meemee]

go to as many public events as possible where there is dance. that is what i did and most of the family events would allow the child on stage with the other dancers. my dd has been on stage since she was 1. at other festivals she was the kid on stage inviting other kids to join in during the inbetween time.

i think its important not truly to join a school right now. its structure and following directions. even for toddlers. in fact a ballet class did not work for us because dd had to wait her turn and hated it. so we took her out of that. instead i would take her ballroom dancing with me and we had free lessons after admission. man she beat all the adults. she seems to pick it up intuitively. we have been doing that since she was 5. at present i cant afford lessons or she would be taking some lessons. but she has the personality where one on one instruction would work for her rather than wait in line in a class. she learnt swimming in 3 days with an awesome amazing instructor.

i would definitely share other modes of dancing with your child. my dd was dancing before she walked. the moment she could stand she totally did the john travolta finger up in the air style.

for us right now its video games - dd 7 1/2 watches roommates teenage sons play video games and has a million questions about strategy and why he is doing what he is playing.

[moominmamma]

This is probably a thread best suited to kids under the age of 8 or so. For older kids my experience suggests that interests are less related to particular areas of knowledge and experience and more related to the ongoing deeper exploration of skills and concepts. So my older kids interests tend to be pretty stable now from month to month and year to year.

Dd16: Many-years interests in violin, piano, choral music and creative writing. This month she's newly keen on mountain-biking, spending hours hammering her way aggressively up and down the technical trails in our area. She's also working 30 hours a week at a local artsy café and enjoying being plugged into the adult world of artists, artisans and movers and shakers, such as it exists in our small town.

Ds13: Has long-term interests in computers, software, tech support and programming, and in viola and choral music. Lately he's keen on mowing lawns, a part-time job he's gradually created for himself. Loving the income, and madly saving and spending on computer hardware.

Dd11: Long-term interests in violin, cooking and choral singing. Recently enjoying lots of independence on her bicycle, riding many miles on her own all over the area, on single-track trails, winding mountain highways and lakefront trails.

Dd7: Long-term interests in violin, piano and mathematics. Recently enjoying lots of trail running and biking, and has become hugely enamoured of the Battlestar Galactica series and other sci-fi.

Miranda

[loraxc]

DD (6.5) is really into birdwatching, insects, reptiles, and general nature study. Other current obsessions include anything fairy-related (always looking for ideas here--book series, crafts, whatever!) and writing and illustrating books. Art, always--she has been drawing for at least an hour a day since she turned 4. She also loves science experiments.

DS (2.5)--well, he's two....but his interests are all things vehicular (especially construction equipment) field guides (DD went through this phase as well...we DO own a ton of field guides), books, and arguing with his sister.

[Tigerchild]

DD8 has been very fixated on developing her own language over the last year, which has been mostly devoted to the verbal aspects and grammar. Currently she's working on the two writing styles of it: one looks pretty symbolic, the other is phonetic using romanized letters. She has been writing "bilingual" books and comic books (with both her language and English).

[greenmamapagan]

=crowcaw;15563519]Also, Darcy Bussell has a series of children's fiction books called the Magic Ballerina with stories about a heroine who, with the help of magic ballet shoes, travels to Enchantia and saves the day for different ballet characters. We went through a spell where they loved these books.

Mmm, DD was quite obsessive about these for a while but that seems to have passed. Phew. We've read all the first series although the bookshop tells me there are three (?!) more series.
Making friends with your local bookshop owner is very important. We were there yesterday and DD was after a book on the birth of Athena. When the owner couldn't order a book that had more than half a page on Athena she printed out 16 pages of wikipedia for us while we were browsing. Not that I couldn't have done that myself but it was really nice of her

[physmom]

Thanks everyone for the great dancing/ballet advice! We went on youtube and looked at some kids doing ballet. She liked it at first but then got freaked out for some reason. Maybe it was the matching outfits? I don't know...

I actually looked into local classes here but it turns out she wouldn't be able to do it for more than a year still due to when her birthday is (she just misses the cutoff by a couple of months). We're going to be traveling a lot this summer but I think I'll make a point to find more public events to take her to after this because I think she'd get a real kick out of it (there was a jazz band a nearby street festival a month or so ago, she was in total awe and spent a long time dancing along to the music. ).

Originally Posted by Tigerchild

DD8 has been very fixated on developing her own language over the last year, which has been mostly devoted to the verbal aspects and grammar. Currently she's working on the two writing styles of it: one looks pretty symbolic, the other is phonetic using romanized letters. She has been writing "bilingual" books and comic books (with both her language and English).

That's so cool! I dabbled with that a bit as a kid too. Is she interested in stuff like the Lord of the Rings or Star Trek where whole other languages were created for the book/tv series? Or the history behind Esperanto?


Thanks everyone else for sharing your kids interests, its fun to hear about them!

[Tigerchild]

Originally Posted by physmom

That's so cool! I dabbled with that a bit as a kid too. Is she interested in stuff like the Lord of the Rings or Star Trek where whole other languages were created for the book/tv series? Or the history behind Esperanto?

Not yet...her best friend is trilingual (Cantonese, Mandarin, English) and she is extremely interested in Japanese manga (CHILD appropriate) and cartoons so I think that is what spurred her interest in experimenting. DH and I have joked around about Esperanto watching her do this. Right now I am staying out of it though, and just letting her do her thing. I have mentioned that there are a few non-cultural created languages like the ones you've mentioned, but she hasn't really expressed interest in knowing more about them. Once she's done and tweaked her language to her satisfaction she'll probably want to know more--but when she is in the middle of a big project she often will discard less interesting input. (Which can be a problem in school...ugh).

[physmom]

Originally Posted by Tigerchild

Not yet...her best friend is trilingual (Cantonese, Mandarin, English) and she is extremely interested in Japanese manga (CHILD appropriate) and cartoons so I think that is what spurred her interest in experimenting. DH and I have joked around about Esperanto watching her do this. Right now I am staying out of it though, and just letting her do her thing. I have mentioned that there are a few non-cultural created languages like the ones you've mentioned, but she hasn't really expressed interest in knowing more about them. Once she's done and tweaked her language to her satisfaction she'll probably want to know more--but when she is in the middle of a big project she often will discard less interesting input. (Which can be a problem in school...ugh).

I totally understand that, DH is the same way to this day! It's impossible to tell him anything when he has a big project. But I honestly think of it as a good thing since I am distracted WAAAAYYY too easily.

[mom2ponygirl]

dd,11 is into playing with Alcumus on Art of Problem Solving, writing a new story, piano (long term interest), playing her penny whistle (new), riding her pony, biking, hiking and running, and swimming. She's thinking of studying neuroscience so she can combine her interests in math, biology, and mythology. She wants to study why the brain comes up with mythologies to explain our world. LOL

[LauraLoo]

Originally Posted by mom2ponygirl

She's thinking of studying neuroscience so she can combine her interests in math, biology, and mythology. She wants to study why the brain comes up with mythologies to explain our world. LOL

She might really like Joseph Campbell -- particularly "The Hero With a Thousand Faces," and "The Power of Myth."
http://www.amazon.com/Hero-Thousand-...7820218&sr=1-1
http://www.amazon.com/Power-Myth-Jos..._bxgy_b_text_b

Carl Jung, "Man and His Symbols," might also be an interesting read for her.

[LauraLoo]

DS 9 -- Violin (long term), astronomy (long term), cartooning, video animation, swimming and pursuing scuba diving (swimming has been long term, now moving into scuba), biology & zoology (long term.) He's also still very into legos and we are running out of room to house his creations. He started soccer this past spring, and has really been into that.

DD 6 -- dance, gymnastics, swimming, soccer, art - but I'm not sure that any of these are true loves for her. She's my academic generalist - nothing is particularly interesting long term, though she has bursts of interests here and there and moves on. She'll be in a performing & visual arts camp this summer and I have a suspicion & hope that she'll find theater performance fascinating.

It's a bit frustrating for me to have one child that has very deep, long term interests and another that seems quite flighty in comparison. I'm probably not looking at this in the right way, and it's probably unfair to compare them.

[mom2ponygirl]

Originally Posted by LauraLoo

She might really like Joseph Campbell -- particularly "The Hero With a Thousand Faces," and "The Power of Myth."
http://www.amazon.com/Hero-Thousand-...7820218&sr=1-1
http://www.amazon.com/Power-Myth-Jos..._bxgy_b_text_b

Carl Jung, "Man and His Symbols," might also be an interesting read for her.

I was just thinking about how I needed to get her the Campbell books! LOL
I'll have to check out Jung as well.

[physmom]

Alright, it looks like we've already gotten some new interests here! DD is really into experimenting with things right now. The first thing is with art/drawing. We currently have three wall art pictures (2 in chalk and 1 that's a dry erase marker) that I need to find a way to get rid of. Any thoughts on giving her ways to experiment with different mediums without destroying our apt? Today she was trying to color on our towels, her doll's shoes, her legs, the floor, and the bed.

The other thing that she's interested in is dolls (or anything for that matter) with lots of small, intricate details. She gets seriously mad with her dolls that are not anatomically correct. And the one that she has that is, she likes to try and remove the various body parts to see what is inside. She's constantly getting made at her toys that you can't take apart (all her little people are VERY frustrating right now!!!). Do any toys exist that are safe for 1.5 year olds that have a lot of remove-able parts and intricate details?

[HeatherB]

Fun! Let's see if I can quantify what all they're interested in now...

DS1 (8) - reading, history (including war and battle which I have trouble with), Narnia (still), mysteries/detectives (and being one), ships and sailboats (a la Dawn Treader), legos, and a waning obsession now with creating things like a real Speed Racer car, trans-light speed engine, etc.

DS2 (5.5) - dinosaurs (especially allosaurus), anatomy, reading (which is improving by leaps and bounds and I can't keep up!), ambulances (he rode in one in March), the hospital he was at for his surgery, legos

DS3 (2.5) - cars, trains, planes, music, singing, dinos, letters (especially A) and numbers (especially 5), legos, Veggie Tales

I know they are interested in so many more things... But they are also very restricted right now as we're moving and most things are packed! They play baseball (with soft balls and no bats) in the house, read, build with legos (when we haven't stashed them for failure to clean them up), race cars, and chase each other around (often as dinosaurs). Oh, and they play Narnia and create the Dawn Treader in various spots.

[ellemenope]

Originally Posted by physmom

Alright, it looks like we've already gotten some new interests here! DD is really into experimenting with things right now. The first thing is with art/drawing. We currently have three wall art pictures (2 in chalk and 1 that's a dry erase marker) that I need to find a way to get rid of. Any thoughts on giving her ways to experiment with different mediums without destroying our apt? Today she was trying to color on our towels, her doll's shoes, her legs, the floor, and the bed.

DD got a new art easel that fits onto her learning tower for her birthday. It is great. She plays with it nonstop for hmm... for hours. She loves to take the caps on and off, draw, and then erase. So far, we have had no issues with walls (which surprises me because the easel is in the corner, so all she would have to do is turn a quarter to the left and there is a nice clean white wall!)

It is in her playroom, so I listen from in the living room, and I hear, "Its a snake. It's a octopus. It's spongebob. It's a dolphin..." I actually can see the snake. And, I saw what she said was a dolphin. But, the vast majority of her drawing are scribble.

I am delighted because this was the girl who had no interest in art a few weeks ago.

I also witnessed one of the cutest displays of ingenuity. She had three markers and three caps in her hands and she was trying to put them all together. She ended up with a marker under each of her armpits, and two caps under her chin. She did what she wanted without putting a single thing down.

Originally Posted by physmom

The other thing that she's interested in is dolls (or anything for that matter) with lots of small, intricate details. She gets seriously mad with her dolls that are not anatomically correct. And the one that she has that is, she likes to try and remove the various body parts to see what is inside. She's constantly getting made at her toys that you can't take apart (all her little people are VERY frustrating right now!!!). Do any toys exist that are safe for 1.5 year olds that have a lot of remove-able parts and intricate details?

DD got a set of snap dolls made by fisher price like thisfor her birthday as well. I was not thrilled about it, but they do keep her attention. They are for 2 and up, but I think your little girl would do fine. They come with outfits and accessories that are easily snapped on and off (so, a little less morbid than snapping off arms and heads )
____

I feel like DD's baby obsession has waned a bit since the climactic baby reveal on vacation. She loves her new baby, and I am pretty confident she will always be a 'baby' girl.

She is constantly asking to watch TV (which we don't at home.) When we were on the cruise we let her. She loved "Alvin and the Chipmunks" and "Spongebob". She loves to sing "All the single ladies" and spongebob's theme. She also went to the movie theater with her older cousin to see "Toy Story 3". She talks about it all the time. We even walked past a poster for "Despicable me" at the mall weeks later and she turned to me and said, "we saw that at the movie theater." It was one of the trailers.

She also is constantly wanting music on so she can dance. She is quite the dancer.

I would say her major obsession right now is rocks. We went to a dolphin show thing in Bermuda, and all she wanted to do was look at the rocks. And she loves dophins! She finds rocks everywhere. She is never happier than with rocks in her pocket. Everytime we walk out to the car she finds two more rocks that end up on the floor of the car. This has been going on for months right now. I guess I need to embrace it. I should get some books and learn about the different types of rocks out there.

Of course, nothing compares to her baby obsession we witnessed a couple months ago.

[LauraLoo]

Originally Posted by ellemenope

I would say her major obsession right now is rocks. We went to a dolphin show thing in Bermuda, and all she wanted to do was look at the rocks. And she loves dophins! She finds rocks everywhere. She is never happier than with rocks in her pocket. Everytime we walk out to the car she finds two more rocks that end up on the floor of the car. This has been going on for months right now. I guess I need to embrace it. I should get some books and learn about the different types of rocks out there.

DS did this for quite awhile. And then it turned into fossil hunting. He still has a wooden bowl upstairs in his room with his favorites. The other day we were at a beach and he found a simple rock, but he loved its form - he said it looked like a big tooth.

[kgianforti]

Big girl (4)- the human body. Today she was telling me all the things her neurons were telling her to do.

Small girl (19 mo) - counting. She counted every time she swung forward on the swing up to 10!