If you have multiple children, it’s inevitable. At some point one of them will feel like (and probably even say) that you love their sibling more. That’s what’s been going on here. My baby girl has been feeling like I might just love her little brother more.
Thankfully we stumbled upon the book Most Loved Monster.
If you haven’t read the book before, Momma Monster has little monsters who all want to know who she loves the most. The book focuses on the fact that all her little monsters are special to her because of how different they each are. I couldn’t wait to use it to reinforce the fact that I love both of my little ones and that they are both special in their own ways.
Activities to go with Most Loved Monster:
The first thing we did I actually came up with spur of the moment. My youngest had all his stuffed animal “babies” on the chair with him as we read, and I used them as a learning tool. Taking two stuffed animals at a time we talked about what was different about them. We talked about what they looked like, where they’d each live if they were real, what they’d each eat…everything that was different.
And then I asked him which one he loved. Of course he loved each and every one of them. After a couple rounds with his animals, my oldest went running off to bring a few of her own. Since neither of them have just one special stuffed animal, we were able to talk about how they love all their “babies” even though they are all different.
Then we checked out the snowflakes they made a few days ago. I explained to them that in nature no two snowflakes are the same. The same was true for all their paper snowflakes. And yet they are all pretty.
I probably didn’t need to do the snowflakes with them after our impromptu look at the stuffed animals, but I wanted to use the opportunity to also talk about how just one snowflake on the door would not have been as pretty as the entire collection — that it took all the different snowflakes together to make it as beautiful as it is.
By then they needed something more hands-on to do, so we headed to the Play-Doh. We’ve used random objects to make Play-Doh Monsters before, but today I wanted to use our often forgotten Potato Head pieces to build some wacky creatures.
They had fun adding multiple eyes, arms, mouths, etc. to create their own funny monsters. And we talked about how each of the monsters, although different, were fun to play with and interesting to look at.
Most Loved Monster and the activities we did to go with the book helped ease my little girl’s mind. She no longer is worried that I might love her little brother more. And, just in case there is any lingering doubt in her mind, I plan on telling her every night just how much I love her.
Katie @ Gift of Curiosity says
What a great lesson to reinforce with your kids.
OneMommy says
Definitely important for them to both know!
Chris Carter says
What great ideas to do with that theme that is SO important to learn… 🙂 Great job mama!!
OneMommy says
Thank you. It breaks my heart when she thinks I don’t love her or I love her brother more… So far she is loving her little messages on the hearts each day.
JDaniel4's Mom says
Your monsters are so cute! What a great lesson! I will be sharing this post on the Read.Explore.Learn Facebook page today.
OneMommy says
They really had fun making monsters, taking them apart, and doing them again… Gave us a new use for the Potato Head stuff that hardly gets used lately.
Donna DM Yates says
What a cute book. Those snowflakes are adorable.
OneMommy says
Thanks! I learned to fold the paper for them and draw where to cut, then they aren’t disappointed with what they create.
The Dose of Reality says
That was quick thinking and so perfect to use the stuffed animals to illustrate how you can love more than one wonderful thing at a time.
I loved how you used the snowflakes, too!
OneMommy says
I had planned on the snowflakes all along, but the stuffed animals were too perfect not to use them.
Rach says
I love it! I was wondering what the monster book would be! 🙂
OneMommy says
It’s really a pretty cute book.
Erica @What Do We Do All Day? says
Is it just me, that cover scares me! But you make the book sound interesting. Thanks for sharing at The Children’s Bookshelf.
OneMommy says
LOL, yes, the cover is pretty scary looking! I was going to take a picture of the inside of the book — the pics aren’t quite as scary, but I thought people would like to know what the cover looked like.