Playful Parenting (Chapter 5)

“Follow the Giggles”

Hello, 

Just thought I would post a couple of examples that “got the giggles going” with my daughter (age 4) recently: 

1. Reading the book “Who said Moo?”, I mixed up all the animal sounds so that the cow said “Cock a doodle doo” and the chicks said “Oink, Oink” and so on.  Lots of giggles and “do it again” and again, and again!!! 

2. Potty time — not her favorite time, as she never wants to stop what she’s doing, and so she’s prone to accidents. Anyway, I asked her if she wanted to see the elephant that’s living under the bathroom 
sink. We looked under the sink, and of course, no elephant. She gave me the “you’re so silly, mommy” look, so I told her she could only see the elephant if she was sitting on the potty. She got on the potty and still couldn’t see the elephant, so I said, “can’t you see it? there’s a big, green elephant right there!” Giggles, so I wen’t on….”and a purple, spotted zebra, and a pink monkey…can’t you see them?” More giggles…before she knew it, she was done going potty. The only downside? She didn’t want to get OFF the potty because she was having too much fun! Now we play the “animals under the sink” game every night at potty time. 

And one for my baby (now one year old), who is now able to take a bath in the big bathtub! Variations on the song, “Gunk, gunk went the little green frog one day…” 

Gunk, Gunk went the little green frog one day, 
Gunk, Gunk went the little green frog, 
Gunk, Gunk went the little green frog one day, 
and his eyes went blink, blink, blink 

Jump, Jump went the little orange fish one day…(and his fins went 
swish, swish, swish) 
Crawl, Crawl went the little purple turtle one day…(and his shell 
went knock, knock, knock) 
Dive, Dive went the little yellow duck one day…(and his bill went 
quack, quack, quack) 
Swim, Swim went the little gray whale one day…(and his tail went 
splash, splash, splash) 

I sing each verse with the appropriate squirting bath toy. 

Please feel free to post your ideas for “getting the giggles going.” 

Playfully yours, 
Michelle