I heard a little tap on our door yesterday afternoon. I opened it only to be trampled by a group of very excited preschoolers from Ami's gan. One of them shouted (not one of mine!) "Let's play!!" and they all began running down the hall to the kids' rooms, yelling "Yaaaaay!". I yelled "Stop!" and they all practically tripped over each other because that's how fast they were running. I had them color in coloring books in the kitchen where I could at least see them make a big mess. (see pic #1)
The funny part is I had no idea where they were coming from and no one seemed to be aware of their whereabouts. They had somehow banded together and were circulating around to different apartments. It was really very cute, actually. And eventually everyone was returned to their respective homes.
Little bitty ones running around independent is pretty common. I thought I would never feel comfortable allowing my kids to do that, but honestly, it has turned out to be much easier than I had thought. Friday evenings, waiting for Abba to get home from shul are much more enjoyable now that they are able to run around with their friends. The shul we go to meets in Amitai's gan which is one building away from ours. There is a bicycle path from our courtyard in back of the building, straight to the gan. Led by a neighbor's slightly older child, the kids run to the shul/gan where they play in the playground, and back to our apt where they load up on snacks before heading back out.
Gali and Ami get out of gan at 1:20, so it's a fairly long day left when they get home. No worries! Off they go to play with whatever neighbor happens to be home.
Back in Baltimore, if we wanted the kids to be occupied and play with friends, we would have to plan a play-date in advance, calling around to see who would be available the day before. And seeing as I tend not to plan very much in advance in general, this was not done quite often in our house. Much to the annoyance of Gali who would usually spend her afternoon groaning "I'm booorrred!" (surrounded by toys and a huge backyard with a swing set).
So everyone is pretty happy with this arrangement. Except for Hila, maybe. (see pic #2) She's not allowed to go and come as she pleases, something she finds extremely not fair. Being that she thinks she's a few yrs older than her age (which is really 17 months old). I think she also gets irritated having more older kids around who enjoy picking her up and plopping her down whenever they please. One older brother and sister is enough, thank you. So whenever someone new comes to our house, she bee-lines for them and gives them a 17 month old smack...which they find adorable and immediately have to pick her up.
1 comment:
That is one thing I also can't see myself ever being comfortable with. I know that Israel is different, but three-year-olds don't have a lot of judgment, and how could you relax and make Shabbos if you don't know where they are? Our Israeli friends here (we are in Chicago) say, "oh, well of course we would never do that here" but I don't understand--not ever having lived in Israel--what is different. Less traffic? Fewer criminals? Less trouble to be gotten into, somehow? Here I never allow my under-fours out of my sight if we are outside, and even in the house I always like to be at least vaguely aware of what they are doing (lest I discover somebody putting a crayon mural on the wall).
I'm told that kids who are allowed to be more independent develop sechel earlier--maybe that's it.
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