Hallie and Travis

Over the years the kids have been given all sorts of gifts, some more immediately popular than others. I have a pretty good sense of what each of them will like, but there are always surprise hits (and surprise misses). I’ve learned over the last year or so that a gift doesn’t have to be an immediate hit to become immensely popular or have staying power.

There are several things that I could have written off or packed up for lack of interest. Hallie dabbled in her origami kit but soon sent it aside for several months. Neither kid was too interested in the opera for kids cds Gum and Gup sent them. Hallie’s microscope from her last birthday came out of the box once, maybe twice over the course of the next year. Try as I might, I couldn’t get Hallie interested in Anne of Green Gables. And Travis’s commitment to his erector set waxed and waned for several months before we finally finished his first project.

Whether out of laziness or foresight (I’ll claim foresight), I kept all of these things in plain view. And eventually every one of them rose to the top of the heap. Hallie’s microscope came out for a recent play date when she and Evelyn were “secret scientists.” On the first two days of summer break I got up to find Hallie and Travis huddled over it again, viewing all the prepared slides and collecting lots of new objects to inspect.

Months after Hallie got her origami kit, she dove back into it, using up most of the paper and teaching neighborhood kids how to make her favorite shapes. It took a couple of years for the opera cds to catch on. Once they did, we had a month or so where nothing but Carmen came pouring out of the kids’ rooms. I’d never have thought to take them to their first opera if they hadn’t enjoyed these cds so much.

Anne of Green Gables finally piqued Hallie’s interest around our Sedona trip, and once begun Hallie devoured it. She hasn’t picked up any of the later books, but I know not to push–or to take them away. She’ll get there eventually, if she wants to. And of course I’ve posted about Travis’s delight over his erector set car–completed 5+ months from when we started it.

The playroom upstairs is overrun by toys that never get touched. It desperately needs a good weeding, with treasures being stored and the rest donated. I’m reluctant to take it on because it’s such a big task. But the lessons of this past year are serving me well–I’d never want to risk getting rid of something that might become the next big hit. Better to be safe than sorry, right?