Skip to main content

Dinosaur Hunting



Almost every morning as soon as my 4 year old son wakes up, he goes directly into dinosaur mode.  He transforms from a little boy into one of two characters - Nigel Marven, the time traveling star of the English TV series, Prehistoric Park or Dino Dan the main character of the Canadian TV series with the same name that plays on Nick Jr in the US. It could be 6:00 AM and he goes straight into character.  If he's Dino Dan, he puts on an American accent so I always know and if he's Nigel, he starts talking about being back in dinosaur times. No matter which character he chooses, it's always too early for dinosaur hunting and yet I find myself playing along more times than not.
The thing is I can use this characters to my advantage.  I say things like, 'If you're Nigel, then you can definitely get yourself dressed (my newly 4 year old has trouble getting dressed on his own).  He takes the clothes (unfortunately, usually a yellow shirt and khakis because that's all Dino Dan wears and it's now Ethan's every day uniform - even if he is Nigel) and starts getting dressed saying things like, 'I can get dressed all on my own because I'm a grown up.' If I want him to go use the bathroom and he's Dino Dan, I tell him 'Since you're 10 years old, surly you can get yourself on the toilet.' He says OK and runs for the bathroom (any other time he says he needs help).
The downside to using these games to get cooperation in the morning is that I have to play as well and go dinosaur hunting with my son before I've even had my morning coffee.  This morning I was running from a T-Rex called Matilda and yesterday, we were tracking the dinosaur that was stealing our shoes. Too bad I can't get Dino Dan to make his own breakfast...
Labels:

Comments

andrea said…
Oh my gosh, we watch Dino Dan every single day, and my son now digs our yard every day looking for dinosaur bones, and talks non stop about dinosaurs!
12:50 PM
Erren said…
They don't play Dino Dan here so I had to download every episode on iTunes so Ethan could watch it. He's absolutely nuts about dinosaurs and It's shocking how much he knows. He knows countless species and even what period they lived in! Does your little one dress like Dino Dan? I had to get Ethan yellow shirts for his bday because it's all he'll wear.
5:55 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Top 20 Lists

Recently, a magazine here in the UK issued their list of their Top 100 women in show business. This sparked conversation between Wayne and I and one rainy weekend when we had nothing to do, we compiled our own Top 20 lists. The rules were we had to judge on looks alone (not their physique) and only one token model was allowed. For fun, I thought I'd add our lists here for you to view and enjoy. Maybe it will even spark conversation between you and a friend or loved one. Wayne and I actually had a really good time creating our lists together - judging each other's taste in the opposite sex and laughing over how long it took for us to prioritize our selections. We still change the order every time we look at it! (although our top five have remained the same) Enjoy and feel free to comment!
Post a Comment
Read more

Fight Club for Five Year Olds - Part 2

The other mother and I went into the school to meet with the teacher and the assistant head.  We both let them know how upset we were that we were not informed that our children were sent to the office and how much we were against the children being allowed to play fighting games on the playground.  I told them I wouldn't allow it at home and I'm really unhappy that it's being allowed at school.  They admitted it was a problem and explained that they are planning to introduce a a scheme to teach the children to play in a safe way.  They will be calling it 'Super Hero Training'.  They plan to give out capes & masks out to children who behave well as rewards at playtime.  They will have assemblies where they will teach the children to play fighting games without making contact.  I find this to be absurd.  The problem has gone on to long and I doubt they will be able to teach little children to change their games when they have sixty other childr...
5 comments
Read more

Attitude adjustment...

It's been a while since I blogged regularly. I guess I've been going by the rule - if you don't have anything nice to say - don't say anything at all. I hate 'woe is me' type entries and for the last month or so, I've been really down and haven't had anything good to say. I think it started with the news that Aniela (my fellow expat girlfriend) was moving back to the US and was exacerbated by the incident with Wayne's cousin and the flare up of my condition (along with a general feeling of homesickness & loneliness). I was really depressed for quite a few weeks there and haven't been doing much more than going to the gym and other random things to keep me busy during the day. I haven't even worked on my web classes (in any serious way) in weeks (probably because I can't concentrate when I'm in pain - never mind get very motivated). I'm not so down anymore. Maybe it's the sunshine. Maybe it's the fact that I'...
12 comments
Read more