“You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do.”  ~Eleanor Roosevelt

When my son was afraid of bugs and wouldn’t sleep because of the nightmares, I bought him a Madagascar Hissing Cockroach. You heard me correctly. He named him Joe, built him a little house out of a milk carton and put it in the critter cage. He brought him to his bedroom and they were fast friends. Guess what? No more nightmares. The boy is 10 now and he still owns a cockroach. (They eat veggies and fruit, and seriously last forever!)

When my girl was 4 and fell off her horse , she cried and wanted to go home, I put her back on. She’s 17 now and jumps 3ft fences on her horse.

No one ever got anywhere by being afraid, is my philosophy. So when I had a couple of smalls afraid of the thunderstorm today…well…I took them out to play in it!

It started out as a gloomy and grey morning. It was a perfect morning for reading books. Chicka Chicka ABC is always a hit, so we got started…The last page is always a favourite…the booms are soooo loud as the letters fall out of the coconut tree…

As we were reading it, for the second time, it started to rumble and thunder outside, and the rain came down in earnest.  This instilled a bit of panic in one of my smalls…This is when I hatched the plan!

Grab your boots and rain coats, little ones! We are going out to play in the rain! Do you hear the sky?? CHICKA CHICKA BOOM BOOM, it says!!! IT’S TIME TO PLAY!! And so we raced to the door and dressed to play in the rain. They were pretty excited, and had all but forgotten about the scary noise in the sky.

We scouted out a place where we could see the clouds and play in the puddles…It was all fine and dandy until another rumble of thunder was heard in the distance. Then I had this little one running to me…so very nervous…So we had a little chat and we chanted,

“CHICKA CHICKA BOOM BOOM!” from the sliding door of the minivan. We chanted and we waited. We waited for letters to fall from the clouds, just like they fell from the tree in the story book! Oh, she thought this was a funny game! And the next roll of thunder was not nearly as scary! Not even close. I even got a smile.

The bigger kids weren’t afraid at all. They played out in that storm until they were soaked to the bone. I had to drag them back into the van with me and the wee ones so we could get back for snack! And besides…I had some more tricks up my sleeve. *Please note, in case you are worried…we did not go out in the thick of an electrical storm. We waited until the storm was off into the west and all we were left with was rain and small thundery rumbles in the distance.

When we got back to the house, we built a Chicka Chicka ABC activity in our sensory table…We added foam and magnetic letters to soybeans. I had found the coconut tree cups at the dollar store a while back, so that was lucky! We also put the board book in with it all. And it was such fun! They made it rain all over the book as they chanted “CHICKA CHICKA BOOM BOOM!! They used their little fingers to fill the holes in the tops of the cups… And then, the “thunder” began!! Oh my, but it was loud! and so much fun! Even the baby had his own little Chicka Chicka ABC bin…Foam letters, warm water, and coconut tree tops! Being little shouldn’t mean you get left out of the fun! There is usually a way to tailor the same “big kid” activity to the smallest of the smalls! Now that’s a happy baby! Who knew the letter M could taste so good!!?

After all this “fear-facing” and shaking letters from the sky, the kids were hungry. We finished off our activity time with a snack fit for this delightful rainy day…Little cream cheese and jam sandwiches cut in the first letter of each of their names,with colourful veggies to go alongside. We fetched the cups out of the sensory table, filled them up, and popped their straws in!

Oh happy day!

So the next time you’re hanging out with me, you might not want to tell me what you’re afraid of! I might just buy you a bug, or make you play in the rain!

Thanks for stopping by!

~Arlee, Small Potatoes