Presents In Action

It's hard to tell when a child will like a present they receive.   They may want it, but when it arrives they have changed their mind or they aren't as interested in it when they find out what's involved or how it works.   Today I saw two presents in action that are working well, and on both occasions, I had wondered how they would work out. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son likes magic because his grandfather has been a magician since he was eight himself.  Tonight for the first time I saw my son put in enough practice to be able to do a trick without being nervous or bumbling through it not sure what to do.  He was so pleased with my surprised reaction to the cups and balls routine he had learned the first moves to.  When I went upstairs to help his sister, he started working on another trick with his father. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter is "bored bored bored" but today she got a circular loom from Uncles Bob and Brian.   This was a simple loom that would make tubes of knitted material that could be made into hats or other items.   I had fairly high confidence she could do it—but would she want to.   Tonight she is up in her bed, lying in the dark, making mistakes, because when you can't see what just went wrong, it's not always easy to recover.   But she's being successful.  I told her not to worry about it being perfect, that this first time was to learn and to get the motions down so she knew what to do and how to prevent the yarn from going in the wrong places.   She is interested and determined.   I think she would be so happy to go to school and have people compliment her on her hat this winter and then be able to tell them she made it.