Tuesday, July 25, 2017

Road Trip

The babes and I just went on a road trip. We drove from LA into Sequoia National Forest, Kings Canyon, to be exact. This trip was sans daddy because he couldn't make it up until a day later. I have to be honest - I'm glad to have these long road trip moments without him because he's uncomfortable with silence. And I appreciate silence. I relish it. A lot happens when one allows silence to happen.


You know where I'm going with this - #noelectronicmedia.

This is what we did on our 5+-hour trip. We had lovely conversations. The babes told me all about her school mates. She shared stories of incidences that happened in school last year. She read some of her book to me - there were poems in them and she shared them with me. Then she told me more stories about happenings in her life. She then recited her third grade verse for me. Then she recited the book Arrow to the Sun, then Dream Animals including the author's bio at the end of the book.

These just must be some of her favorite stories and so she's memorized them. It's pretty magical.

Then we listened to the soundtracks for The Sound of Music and Cats Musicals. We maybe went through both twice and then we switched back to silence and chatted some more.

I highly recommend silence. I truly believe that children are only "afraid" of silence because their parents are. If you always fill up the space with noise then how can your child hear his/her own thoughts? How would they find the voice to ask for silence when it's never been experienced? They just will always ask for more - more music, more stories, more movies (if your car provides that). Where is the imagination? Where is the connection and conversation? Btw, the drive up to Sequoia is so beautiful. The landscape looks like a painting! So much of that beauty is missed if your child's head is dipped down staring at a screen.

On the way back from Sequoia, the hubs was in the car so of course, the music was on the whole time until we switched to an audiobook. Ooh, the one I downloaded in preparation for this is really good! I recommend this one - Spirit Animals -  if you absolutely cannot stand to drive in silence. It is so gripping I can't wait to get back to it myself. And now that we are back, our car rides are void of conversation until we've reached the end of our audio tale.

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