Yesterday my son and I ventured outside to enjoy the relatively enjoyable temperature, the sunshine, and some free time together. Since the weather has been uncharacteristically cold and snowy for this part of the country we haven’t been spending as much time outside as we’d like. Coupled with the increasingly busy schedule my wife and I have been encountering lately our family time has mostly been spent cooking, eating, and trying to relax & do work at the same time (something that doesn’t really make sense or necessarily work). As always, I noticed changes in my son from before the winter to the spring. The changes were exciting.
My son has always been interested in shadows. He’s seen his shadow frequently as I carried him on my shoulders out to collect the mail or as he plays with his toys and the sun shines into the window in the early evening. Up until this past weekend, though, he’d never actually played with his shadow before. Part of his reluctance to play was his inability to understand what the shadow actually was. This weekend he connected the dots (somewhat) in his mind and had a really great time.
It all happened on a bench in our front yard. I sat him on the table and he immediately saw that “shadow thing” that he always seems to see outside. What had changed was his understanding of his own body. Since he’s been getting so much better with his hands he now knows what they do. The mirror at daycare and next to his floor mat at home have given him a relatively good idea about what his decision to move his hands actually looks like. This was the knowledge he needed to understand the shadow.
So when he moved his hands… and the shadowy figure seemed to move their hands… a light bulb shined bright in his mind and my son started smiling really big. He tested it out one more time… moved his hands and arms again… saw that the shadow did what he knew he was doing… and this time he LAUGHED! I couldn’t have been prouder or happier. My son teaches me to be young again: I’d forgotten how magical shadows are!