September: A Month of Boycraft!

I just didn't get it.  Neither Josie (my oldest) nor I have ever been particularly girlie girls: we like bugs, get dirty, play trains...and I didn't see that there would be much of a difference between girls like us and boys.  Heck, we're not called tomboys for nothing, right?  I couldn't have been more wrong.  While our interests are pretty well aligned, I really didn't anticipate the intense physicality that Jasper would bring to our family.  When mothers of boys would talk about having to get out and run their boys around every day I scoffed a bit, thinking that they were overdoing it.  See, wrong again.  Jasper has to be run, tickled, thrown around, and use his boy-spirit to best advantage every day.  He likes to read books for an hour or more, but that has to be balanced with some gross motor activity.  He's happy to express himself creatively, but it has to have that gross motor component too--smashing playdoh, painting big strokes on big paper, driving dumptrucks around his big sand city; where Josie was happy with glue, scissors, and markers for an hour, Jasper's interest wanes after a few minutes. 

With Josie heading off to Kindergarten every day I'm left with a lot of time to (finally!) spend alone with Jasper doing what he wants to do (as opposed to what Josie has told him he'll be doing).  I'm excited to have this time to focus on him, but I feel like I'm entering uncharted territory populated by dinosaurs, rockets, space people, and construction equipment.  Thus, I've decided that September shall be Boycraft month on Kiddio and we're going to put our minds together to come up with some great ideas to share with the boys in our lives. 

To kick it off, please take a minute and share what you've been doing with your boys (or your girls, if it's something good!).  If you have a blog post to share, add it to Mr Linky.  Alternately, feel free to leave a comment.  'll be featuring some of the ideas you share as the month goes on!



Disclaimer:  As a girl myself, and as the mother of two girls, I don't mean to shortchange girlpower a bit.  I'm sure that many/most girls will be equally interested in this stuff, I just mean to say that as moms we may not really get how to engage our boys in creative activities that meet their unique needs.  I've struggled with it personally, and I'll bet some of you have too.  Talk to your husband about what it was like to grow up boy--you may be surprised at how different the experience is from what you remember from your childhood.