- This is probably the number one gift
that I would recommend
anyone gives their kids.
It's the best investment we've ever made.
And today I'm gonna
show you how to get it.
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The Parenting Junkie.
Hi, I'm Avital.
I'm a mindful parenting coach,
I'm the mother of four,
and I'm thrilled to be helping parents
from across the globe to reclaim
presence, peace and play
for their families and hopefully
I can do the same for you.
Today, I'm gonna share
a bit of a quirky way
of deciding which gifts
to give your children,
and it's particularly great
for very young children
so toddlers, babies and early childhood,
because in that time
this is most relevant.
So are you ready to hear about it?
Then slam on that Like button
and let's get started.
So what is this quirky way of gifting
your child a gift and figuring out
what gift to give them?
People ask me the whole time,
what should I give my two-year-old?
What should I give my three-year-old?
What will be the best gift for them?
And here the thing is,
I don't know your two-year-old
or your three-year-old.
But what I do know is that children go
through phases when
they're really immersed
in particular schema.
Now, I have a video that can introduce you
to what schema are, but basically
schema are natural physical urges
that all children have
when they're developing normally.
They have urges to do certain things,
I'm gonna get into those
in just one minute.
So, if you want to give your child a gift
that's going to be a for-sure success,
a home run, then you want to be observing
what schema your children
are most interested in right now.
I'm about to run you through some
of the most common schema and which gifts
are relevant for those ones.
Here we go.
Number one, rotation.
Have you noticed your child
is fascinated with spinning around
or with spinning objects?
Does your child love things
that go round and round a mount?
If so, they might be really
into the rotation schema.
They want to see what happens
when things rotate.
They might enjoy watching your dryer
spin round and round,
or you could gift them
something that spins.
For example, a dreidel.
And now is the time for me to expose
one of my absolute favorite gifts
that I'm proud to say I'm responsible
for so many people putting in their homes
and that is an indoor swing.
An indoor swing can be absolutely perfect
for the rotation schema as well,
especially if you get the 180 swivel,
which allows the swing
to rotate on the spot.
That is great if your
child is into this schema
and of course, anything
that I say about the swings,
please get someone professional,
someone who knows what they're doing
to install it so it's definitely safe,
and make sure that
you're appropriately safe
with the swing.
Maybe you need mats underneath it,
or maybe you need
to supervise your child with it.
Please take safety precautions
because it's a swing.
For the rotation schema,
something like a dreidel,
a swing, or even a salad mixer.
I know that's such a strange gift
to give a little child
but my two-year-old loves our salad mixer,
loves those ones that you know you press
and then they spin round and round.
How much fun!
What a great gift.
Plus you could be making yourself
more salad so everybody wins.
The second schema that I'll talk about
is trajectory.
This is the urge to see things
flying through the air, to throw things
such as throwing a ball,
or throwing your body.
So, a great gift for a kid,
who is really interested in throwing,
would be things like
balls maybe and a hoop,
maybe things like little bean bags
or something that is
safer for them to throw
and that you would allow
for them to throw in the home.
Or maybe something like a trampoline
that they can really bounce around on
and throw their body around.
Even a climbing frame or a climbing wall
with a soft surface underneath
where it's safe for them
to jump off of things
allowing them to explore
the trajectory schema.
The next one is enveloping.
Enveloping?
Can someone help me out here?
Can we just call it wrapping?
Okay, the wrapping schema.
The schema where we wrap things up
or we hide things.
So, this is when your child
is maybe wrapping themselves up,
hiding themselves under your sheets,
or they keep wrapping up things
like taking a piece of tissue
and then wrapping up their sandwich,
or wrapping up their doll in a blanket.
Things like that.
So, a wonderful gift for
the enveloping schema
is silk scarves.
A set of open-ended silk scarves,
I think, is a great toy.
It stands the test of time,
high quality, completely open-ended,
and it's a wonderful way to dress up
and play pretend in the future.
But if your child is very into enveloping
they're gonna love wrapping
their dolls in the silk scarves,
wrapping themselves, and you could get
the extra large size or the smaller ones
depending on their interest.
You could also get them something
like beeswax paper or
the reusable Saran wrap,
the eco-friendly Saran
wrap, and beeswax paper
that you would use in your kitchen.
But a toddler might find that
to be the perfect gift.
The next schema is orientation,
and this is the urge to hang upside-down.
You and I know what it's
like to hang upside-down
because we did it when we were kids.
But kids have the urge
to see what it's like
to see the world from a
different perspective.
Very healthy urge, I believe.
And so, allowing your kids to have a place
where they can easily hang upside-down,
such as a climbing frame or a swing again.
So, where do I get my swings?
I get my swings from Fun & Function.
I've been extremely lucky they have
very high-quality wonderful swings,
and they're designed to
withstand the test of time
and to be a really
important sensory object
for children to explore their bodies
and their surroundings in a safe way.
Now, I'm really lucky to have
three different swings
from Fun & Function,
and we love them, we've used them
for about four years now,
and I've moved three different homes
with my swings.
And I have a video all about why
indoor swings are such a good idea.
I'll link to that below.
But I want to tell you that I've actually
been able to partner
up with Fun & Function
and get us junkies here a 15% off code.
So, if you're thinking
about getting a swing,
especially now for the holidays as a gift,
that's a wonderful idea,
and use the code, it's
JUNKIELOVE in checkout,
and use it with the link below this video.
I have partnered with them
and if you use that link
I will receive a small commission
for every purchase that comes my way.
Thank you if you do,
and if you don't want to
that's fine as well.
But I highly recommend indoor swings.
They've changed my home
and thousands of homes across the world
for the better because children
need to move their bodies,
children have all these
urges, all these schema
that we're gonna talk about right now.
They have them, and instead of saying
don't touch that, don't climb the walls,
don't jump off there, you could just have
the place where they can do it.
And the beauty of having indoor swings is,
all you need to do is install
even just one hook in your home.
I currently have two.
But even just one hook
in one room in your home
and you can switch out the swings
so it makes it this
wonderful family wide gift
that you get a swing, you know,
once every few years you can add
a swing to your collection
and then you can rotate them out.
And if it's not working,
if they're being too wild,
or someone's not treating it safety,
you can take it off altogether
and just have your room back.
And so, I love indoor swings
for all of these reasons.
Many of the swings in Fun & Function
allow you to hang upside down
if they have a trapeze bar
or something like that,
or if they're the raindrop swing.
Also, my kids hang upside down on that.
So that's wonderful for
the orientation schema.
The next schema is positioning.
So if you've noticed that your child
likes to put things in a certain order,
likes to move things around, likes to say,
you know, the cup has to go on this side,
or the cars need to be in this order.
Children who are interested in positioning
will do better with smaller toys,
something like a set of cars,
a set of animals, a set of blocks,
something that they can line up,
order and categorize.
But I still love kitchen
utensils for this as well.
Giving them a set of spoons to play with
or a set of measuring cups,
wonderful for the positioning schema.
The next one is connection.
So this is the idea of connecting things
together and disconnecting things.
So, here you would need things
like train trucks that click together,
or puzzle pieces that click together,
or it could be of the more messy type
such as glue or even kinetic sand.
Something that they can put together
but then also destruct.
Remember that destroying the connection
and disconnecting things
is part of this schema too.
So, a child might be very interested
in putting all the train trucks together,
or they might be much more interested
in taking it all apart.
The next one is enclosure or containing.
Things like putting things in boxes,
putting things in jars.
Putting themselves in a cardboard box,
or in a suitcase, or in a laundry basket.
This is the containing schema.
So for this you want to get something
like stacking boxes, or a laundry basket,
or a treasure chest.
Things that children can put things inside
and close, open and expose again.
Many of the things in your kitchen
would be perfect for this schema,
such as your Tupperware set.
Anything with lids, such
as your pots and pans.
The next one is transformation.
This would be something like pouring milk
into cereal and transforming
the actual chemical
makeup of that substance.
It's playing with substances.
So, things like pouring water into sand,
things like pouring glue onto a project.
Some great gifts for this
schema of transformation
will be anything to do with baking,
like a baking set, a baking book,
doing baking with your children.
Things where they can actually
pour the water into the flour
and mix it together, et cetera.
Another one could be bath bombs
or anything that goes in the bath
where they can suddenly
see the colors come out.
Mixing colors, paints,
another great transformation,
material or play-doh
where they can mix the colors together,
and of course kinetic sand, our favorite.
And the final schema is transportation.
The idea that I need to move things
from one place to another.
For this kids would need
something like a jar,
or something that they can actually
transport things from
one place to another.
A jar, a box, a bag.
Or even better, it's
something with wheels,
like a little wagon that they can push
from one place to another.
My children also use our indoor swings
for transportation because they will
literally swing themselves
across the room,
or tie something onto the swing
and then transport it to their sibling.
So, there you have it.
Those are the schema that we went through.
Rotation, trajectory, enveloping,
orientation, positioning, transporting
and transformation.
Was this a refreshing way
of looking at gift giving?
Give me a love in the comments
if you like this, and let me know
what schema your kids are interested in,
or used to be interested in
if they're not anymore.
I would love to hear.
And let me know if you're interested
in getting an indoor swing.
I'm so excited to be partnering
with Fun & Function on this video.
The link to get the swing
is in the description box below.
The code is JUNKIELOVE for 15% off.
I think this makes
the most magnificent holiday gift
if you're thinking of a gift.
Get a swing installed in your home.
I don't think you'll regret it.
I've yet to hear of
someone who regrets it.
It's just a great investment.
The kids get to let off steam,
they get to move their bodies,
they get to explore all
of these different schemas
that are so important
to their development.
And they get out of your hair.
They get busy with something
and you can drink your cup of matcha.
Matcha, tea, chai.
What are you drinking these days?
Let me know in the comments below.
Did you know that I'm on Instagram?
@parentingjunkie.
Head on over there and follow me.
I do a lot of day in
the life kind of posts
in my stories and I love
to share your comments
and your stories there as well.
So, please, I would
love to connect with you
and feel free to DM me.
I'm pretty active over there.
And if you want a community
of like-minded parents
plus to see many other people's pictures
of their indoor swings and
how they've made it work,
and to debate about your ceiling type
and which screws you need,
please don't ask me about any of that,
I have no idea.
I got a professional handyman
to install my indoor swings and I would
highly recommend that you do the same
unless you're particularly handy.
But if you have questions about that,
head on over to Facebook,
Love Parenting with Avital
is the name of the group
and we would love to welcome in there.
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This is one of those parenting questions
I get asked the whole time.
How do I get my kids to brush their teeth?
