Hey there,
It’s me again, for the second time this month! I guess you could say the WordPress and I are getting pretty serious, Ha!
I have to say that what I’m about to share with you is possibly pretty commonly thought of. Definitely not assuming I’ve coined this idea but just to add, I didn’t look it up on google or pinterest before hand and I’m actually pretty proud of that. I had an idea and went with it, my son ended up loving it and was thoroughly engaged the whole time.
Hands down I would add this into my favorite top five things Cohen and I have ever done together.
Taking walks around our neighborhood is a favorite past time of my son’s. So just before we were about to head out for a loop around the block, I had an idea to make it a photo walk – He takes his camera and I grab mine. I’ve done this a couple of times before; Cohen might take a couple pictures, get uninterested and then ask me to hold his camera for the rest of journey. But for some strange reason, at the same time the thought crossed my mind to take my camera I remembered my photo 1 class in high school. Some of the first assignments we had were “Object, line, texture, reflection…” And I just thought “wow, I didn’t realize it then but it’s almost like a scavenger hunt.”
Then it clicked, Cohen L-O-V-E-S scavenger hunts. I actually had done a Pokemon themed hunt at his birthday party and it was such a huge hit and yet it had never occurred to me to implement that into a photo walk.
Calling Cohen over, I told him let’s make a list of some things we can find on our walk to take pictures of like a scavenger hunt and he was all about it. Instead of him handing me the paper to write out a list like I thought he would; He sat down and drew a picture for everything we came up with.
We decided on:
- Any kind of bug
- Any kind of flower
- A white mailbox
- A brown leaf
- A sign
- A capital “G”
- A bird
I didn’t go too overboard with the list because I didn’t know how it was going to go until it did but I got to tell you it was a parenting WIN. He was so focused and adorable!! Scoping out ant hills and getting so excited when he found the next thing on the list. I took just a few pictures of him which I’ll add, just enough to remember the evening. My absolute favorite is the one where he had gotten a picture of a bird right before it flew off and I was hyping him up “Did you get it?!? You got it?! Oh my gosh that looks so good – you’re a great photographer!!” And he was so proud of himself you can just see it in his eyes looking at it on the back of his camera. MY HEARTTTT <3
It was in that moment that I could see myself in Cohen. I mean he is my mini me through and through so it’s always there, but we connect very deeply with art so this was just the absolute best bonding experience for us.
If you’re a mama with a five year old and a camera, try this game/hack/idea whatever you want to call it for yourself. It was so touching and Cohen just loved every second so maybe yours will too.
With Love,
Taylor
