“what’s a holiday?”

Posted January 27, 2015 by tambarr1 in family and home / 2 Comments

I am always amazed by the many types of questions that Tamia asks me. Some of her questions are just plain weird, such as, “Do rats eat people?” While others are as simple as “Do you love me?” She is curious about so many things, and sometimes, I don’t have an answer to give her. So when she asked me “what’s a holiday?” I was surprised that she asked me a question that I could actually answer.

Tamia: Mommy what’s a holiday?
Me: Well, a holiday is a day like any other day, it’s just more…
(but before I could complete my thought, she chimed in)
Tamia: “special”
Me: That’s exactly right, Tamia!

How the idea came about…

#1- Every year Tamia decorates a 3 ft. personal-sized Christmas tree for her bedroom, and for the past three years she has used my old ornaments to decorate her tree.

#2- One of my colleagues shared with me she and her family were giving each other retro Christmas gifts, and that she was going to give her brother painted Christmas ornaments with superheros on them (pinterest-inspired). Immediately, I was hooked because I love the Avengers. So right away, I thought that idea was pretty cool, and I filed it away to explore later. At the time, I was thinking that maybe Tamia and I could make ornaments with a Disney Princess theme (Thanks, Karen).

Marvel and DC Comics

#3- So, when Tamia asked me the question “what’s a holiday?”, I decided to alter the idea Karen shared with me and have Tamia decorate a holiday ornament for each month of the year. At which time, she and I would have a mini lesson about the importance of the holiday and then I would her ask her to share with me why she thinks the holiday is so special.

(FYI, we will be substituting off months with family member birthdays). Once we are done, Tamia will have 12 new ornaments (of her own) to decorate her Christmas tree. Cool, right?

The Idea in Action… (a 4-yr old’s work)

So for January, Tamia made an ornament in honor of MLK holiday, and much thanks to her preschool teacher, Tamia had a lot of information to share with me about Martin Luther King, Jr.

She said that “he wanted everyone to be the same.” It was a proud mama moment. She went on to tell me that he was killed, and added “that’s sad, right?”. Then I shared that Dr. King had 4 little kids like her when he died. She then asked me one of the best questions ever, “who took care of his children when he died?” She’s a sharp one:)

Check out her ornament.