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Wednesday, March 16, 2011

wild play


It's so fun that Hillary and Sam share so many of the same passions. Many of these are things my older two children have never had much interest in: costumes and pretend play; face paints; animals, wildlife, animal babies, animal families; playing house and play kitchen; and creative visual arts like painting, coloring, drawing and sculpting. They are like two peas in a pod and I'm so, so glad that they have each other to share common passions with.


One of Hillary's current passions is baby jaguars. Sam likes tigers. They introduction to these came partly from watching a couple of seasons of Zaboomafoo over the winter. They are similarly inspired by looking at Zoobooks magazines which we frequently take out from the library, watching animal documentaries, Kratt's Creatures and playing with their collection of soft toy wild animals. Sam was inspired this winter to start collecting any of the forest and wildlife themed Playmobil he can find.


They do a lot of animal role playing together. So frequently this involves creating habitat: dens, nests or burrows; and then deciding who will be the parent and who will be the baby. Then the game shifts into playing "survival", how will the parent find food, what predators to look out for, how will the parent protect the baby, the baby eventually learns how to walk-fly-jump-forage-avoid being eaten... or to hunt if the animal they are being is a predator!

I find so much enjoyment in listening to them play these animal games. They remind me so much of who I was and what I loved to do when I was small.


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