The Art of Pretending

The other day, the boys came out of their room in these get ups.

"Look Mommy. We're Ewok spies. These are our disguises so that no one knows we're Ewoks."

The disguises worked. I never would have guessed they were Ewoks.

Undercover security at Disneyland, maybe. (Note handcuffs, light saber and laser gun.)

Lilly wasn't an Ewok.
But she hates to miss out on the action.

Cheese!

You see, it didn't matter to them that their Ewok costumes made absolutely no sense. That is the art of pretending: anything can happen.

We do a lot of pretending around here. I try to provide an environment that fosters it: costumes, props, the building of forts, the filling up of heads with many many stories for inspiration.

But mostly what I give them is time.

Time to create their own stories, their own ideas, their own games and really their own world.

Kids these days are so busy. There have homework, lessons, sports, play dates, extra curricular activities, tv shows to watch, and that is when they are 5!

And then they grow up and their childhood is gone.

That precious time is gone.

It is easy to think we have to keep them busy, entertained, stimulated, but I assure you, if they have enough time, they'll find a way to entertain themselves.

I found this quote recently that sums it up nicely.

"And so, over entertained, pushed, pulled and tidied up, often the child of today has the rich creative play-response crushed out. Sometimes the only thing his dulled eyes focus on is a premature adolescence which will release him from childhood."

Susan Schaeffer Macauley

Let them be little for as long as you can, because we know how fast time flies.

And how quickly we loose touch with the art of pretending.