It took us a whole month to get the wishes out of him! We tried as many techniques as we could, but he always said: “I don’t want anything”. 

Ultimately, he agreed on choosing ONE present for the New Year’s Eve: wooden drumsticks.

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My kid’s wishes (or my kid’s wish)

I teach my kid every day. I teach life lessons through books and situations, knowledge of the world through facts and experiences. Most importantly, I teach manners by repeating myself over and over again. My goal is to raise a happy human who knows his passions and do life with “just go for it if it satisfies you” state of mind.

When he chose “wooden drumsticks”, we were so happy that we disciplined him to recognise what he truly wants and find his passion at early ages. Anyhow, even though we were proud of him for not being so spoiled, we squeezed in some additional gifts as well. Just to fill up the atmosphere! And he LOVED every single gift (we listened to the small talks carefully)! 😉

Also, the answer he gave me that day, “wooden drumsticks”, sets me right where I belong: aside of him following on the right path and doing everything I can to help him build his musical career.

Here’s the complete list of presents we meaningfully chose to gift him with! Hopefully you can copy some of those and truly enjoy the post!

1 Books.

From reading pictures to making it a routine, books are the best way to educate your child. They help with language development and improve social skills. And there are no greater source of information than books. 

2 Music equipment.

Those who follow my journey know that we bought our son Millenium drum set before he was even 2 years old. From that time till now he grew so much.

Drums improved his motoric skills, coordination, helped him learn rhythm and express his creativity. I hope that he will soon be able to play the guitar as well. Anyhow, we bought him drumsticks (wooden as per his request) and tambourine (addition to his drum set).

3 All kinds of blocks.

Blocks with letters helped my little one learn all letters at the age of one and now we decided for numbers, lego and a Lightning McQueen puzzle. He mastered all shapes and the clock blocks and he still plays with them, so anyhow – blocks are amazing!

4 Art & science

As a way to help their creativity, you can always choose paper for their masterpiece, finger paint, soft pencils, kinetic sand or slime. For science, we decided on a volcano set, a science book and lamp.

5 Just for fun toys presents were garage and gas station because we figured out the garage was one of his wishes for a long time.

But here are some more ideas great for developing immagination! 

6 NO junk food accepted during the Holidays, except when we are casually cheating the day together and making pancakes (or similar).

I don’t think I’m rude for asking of people to not gift my child with a bag full of junk food, because that will celebrate the junk food as we celebrate the New Year and throw my hard work away.

We did buy him some dmbio organic treats: coconut milk, Indian cashews, mango & maracuja chocolate and chocolate rice cakes. He enjoyed coconut milk w/ rice the most because it’s his favourite drink ever!

7 He also got a trampoline and a jeep from our families. 

Listen to the wishes, but choose them wisely

So, as I mentioned, our son is a musician who needs to get more creative each day.

He also has to educate along the process of making music because it will make his life so much easier.

Exploring creativity through toys and most importantly, having fun, are third on the list of toddler’s life.

To ensure all of that, parents need to listen carefully and make small wishes happen at a proper time of their life. Read on to find out how I do it!

Education first

I always knew I am going to start my children’s education young because I want to make their life easier. So, proudly, we started reading to him when he was born in March 2016.

Even though we were basically “reading pictures” through learning colours, I remember when he started with pointing fingers as a way to answer my questions. It happened at four months old.

After that time, I opened my mind to modern researches and embraced the fact that it’s going to be those first three years of education that will later affect his whole life.

Not only did we read, but my husband and I were finding out methods of music education (you can download the planner that will help you recognise your kid’s passions and be better in parenting overall) as well.

Music, as the purest emotion of all arts, needed its place in our son’s life. The prenatal period was all about classical music, but we empowered his infant days with acoustic rock’n’roll songs.

Later on, he chose his favourite bands himself (but, let’s be real, mostly based on our musical taste). And started playing drums before age 2.

My opinion is that he prefers guitars (because of his role model: dad), but since being way too small to properly play the guitar, he is now mastering the drums while occasionally playing a whole bunch of dad’s and his guitars and a piano.

Along with music, we like to implement creative toys as well. Art is a great way to express creativity and work on imagination.

Motoric skills, emotional intelligence, and logic often go together when it comes to toys. Every child (2-3-4-5 years old) could work on blocks and solving blocks problems for hours (even though they solved the same problems several times already).

We usually choose shapes/letters/numbers wooden blocks toys, but dressing up (and any other kinds) are just fine.

Through solving these problems, kids learn the consequences of life and improve motoric skills. No need to mention the educational tone of learning alphabet (and all those small things) while getting the applause after being smart?

Science experiments are probably a must these days because of their scientist gene. Through science, they could learn a lot about some general knowledge of our world too. And it will save your house from the curious little scientist’ hands too.

Just for fun toys, because playing with toys is your little one’s full-time job. Toys are of high importance so I suggest you choose them wisely.

You should listen to the small wishes, like when your kid casually mentions “that toy is awesome” when seeing it in a store. Of course, you would not want to buy it immediately because of a spoiled child syndrome. 

Reminder for the next year:

It’s all right to speak out loud!

You need to know your worth as a mom because other way, people will take that away from you.

You need to proudly say what’s ok and what’s not.

Your rules in parenting are what no one should try to change because no one knows better than you.

Your personal life and choices are only your family’s business.

Always be yourself, love yourself (and others) and have the best year possible!