Random Parent Tip: "What's Missing?"

Fellow parents:

Like many (all?) three year-olds, my child can get restless sitting at a restaurant table. After I've reminded her a dozen times to stay in her seat and use her inside voice, I find myself asking questions like, "Why do we even bother to leave the house?" From there, it's a slippery slope to "This is why we can't have anything nice," and "Because I said so!" and then we can basically make it official that I've become my mother.

In desperation, I used this activity at a restaurant the other night and it worked like gangbusters, so I thought I would share it with you.

"What's Missing?"
Take any five random objects from the table or the bottom of your purse and lay them out in a row. Have your child close his/her eyes. Remove one of the objects, then have your kiddo open her eyes and tell you what's missing. The end.

This game entertained my young'un for a solid half hour.

Chances are, your child will want to take turns being the one to remove an object. Great! This is how we learned that if we use SIX objects, we can stump my husband every time.

Don't worry; he doesn't know this blog exists.

-Brooke

Let's help each other! Do you have a fun parent tip you'd like to share? Have you learned something from patient research and devoted study of the development of small children? Or, like me, have you managed to accidentally fail upward? E-mail us your tip - we'd love to post it!