Our sweet son is now 11-1/2 years old and even though he has one of the kindest hearts I know, he's beginning to get a bit of that tween attitude I hear about. I guess Middle School can do that to a kid. I remember Middle School. I remember being too old to play, but to young to not play. I would hide in my room and pull out my cars and try to set up cities and roads and just play. Some days it worked, some days it didn't. I would end up sitting on the floor feeling so lost.
I'm concerned that our son is feeling this way now. He even wanders around grumpily stating, "There is nothing to do around this stupid house." He has such a great imagination and used to play for hours by himself with Legos and cars and little plastic Army men. In the last two months he's stopped playing. We appreciate the absence of little Lego pieces all over his floor, but wonder where our boy went.
The one thing that seems to be helping him cope with this transition is making movies. He has a Flip camera and makes movies with friends, his sister, the dog, and his gecko. (The dog and gecko even have their own YouTube channel.) The kids dress up in costumes, plan out a story, act it out, direct it, and edit it with sound effects and music. Thank goodness they have this outlet for all that creativity. Making these short movies allows them to play, but if any peers ask, they're just making movies.
Overall the movies are creative and funny. However, we don't understand the use of Nerf & cap guns in almost every movie. What is it with guns and boys? If he has to lose some of his youth in middle school, why can't he lose the guns?
On a more selfish note, I wish all these movies were filmed somewhere besides our house. Seeing baskets of unfolded laundry on YouTube certainly gives me motivation to never store baskets of laundry in the living room. And I'm keeping our bedroom door closed at all times now. Because seeing the piles of unfolded laundry on our bed on YouTube would certainly put me over the edge.
So our 6th grader may have an attitude I'd like to forget, but he has my blue eyes and his dad's sense of wonder with dreams so big and wonderful that I can't help but be excited for his future. He's teaching his younger sister about making movies and how to navigate 2nd grade and hyper boys. He is loved more than he'll ever know. He truly is the tween of my dreams.
(c) Copyright 2010-2016. Erika JN Fish. Car Mama. All Rights Reserved.
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