Do you know what this is? It's a monster being killed. I know it looks more like "pack the trunk of the car" or "let's pretend we're piling stuff up to donate to the Salvation Army" or "let's pretend we're masons and build a wall." And the truth is...if they were playing any of those things, it would still look like this. Play, for the chicks, involves an insane amount of moving stuff into different places, or filling up bags with stuff, covering the couch with stuff, etc.
And while I look at a freshly-cleaned living room and think "ahh...peace and tranquility," they look at it and and see a blank canvas just waiting to be altered. There's no moment more likely to lead to a long fit of messy imaginative play than the moment after I've finished cleaning.
18 comments:
SO true! Your chicks would get along VERY well with my three =)
Your chicks would be welcome in my zoo anytime! I forget what couches with cushions look like!
My 3yo is the same way - I'm cleaning one thing, bring it to another room, turn around and she's set up a restaurant on the coffee table. Here is a REALLY interesting blog post from an ECE person in Australia: http://progressiveearlychildhoodeducation.blogspot.com/2010/10/reply-to-why-are-they-doing-this.html
I'm not at all saying that this is exactly what's going on with your kids, or mine (who does a lot of putting stuff in bags and carrying it around) but it gave me a really interesting different perspective to think about this sort of play (sometimes). :)
Emily--Thanks for linking to that post! I love that blog and have it in my reader, but I didn't find it until the end of last year, so I never saw that post.
That's fascinating to me because in our house, we DO have a lot of stuff, and I would not be surprised if that is what is being emulated. I'm on a mission to declutter and become more minimalist, but I haven't noticed a change in this as I'm getting rid of stuff. Very interesting.
PS Emily, did you read the comment at the bottom from Teacher Tom? His explanation of the kids at their school who build nests is a pretty accurate explanation of what I see at our house, I think. Very interesting.
My mom always complained that if she just cleaned one tiny corner of the house, that's where everyone would go to play; and now I complain the same thing! Nothing like neatly arranged, decluttered, dust-free space for inviting disarray, clutter and dust!
Oh Jaimie - I am in the same boat! We are all home sick today and my goal is to de-clutter my daughter's kitchen area because I have overloaded it with "fun stuff to play with." I like the nesting idea. I love Teacher Tom too. Don't we learn so much when we step back and watch? I also have a number of pictures of play that my daughter has left. Chairs with dolls set up or things lined up. I just find it so interesting - so I loved that you did that too with the pile of stuff!! :)
Hilarious! I have the same pile downstairs right now, only ours is a dam. I've been decluttering this week myself, don;t forget to tally up your items so you can keep track in the clutter buster party I've got going on right now.
I will never get enough of the little minds of babes. Never ever...Never. I like their use of the step stool with pillow above, and below it. Very effective technique for monster killing.
@Emily....Thanks for the link... great blog! Love it! Love it!
So so true! My little ones like to play "camping" which involves taking all the pillows and stuffies and piling them up and crashing on top of them yelling "marshmallows!"
My 2 yr old is constantly making piles of random toys around the house which can be quite frustrating when you are just trying to keep some semblance of order, but then I remind myself that these years of such intense imagination are so precious and I just join in with the fun!
Britany--if you look closely, there's even a rocking horse in there! (the yellow wooden thing to the right). My favorite part is that there is no actual monster. I asked if the dolphin was the monster, and they told me "no, none of these things are the monster! We're killing the monster!"
That's just so hilarious! My kids are exactly the same way, and the trashier the better. I linked through from your ice garland, which is super cute! I'm planning on making one myself. Great blog!
Killing the monster? Do things like killing and monsters come up around 4 years? Or did the chicks get that from somewhere? A book? A story? Or maybe you don't even know? Sometimes I feel like my boy lives in a dreamworld. He has no idea about any of that stuff. (We saw some 2 and 3 year old boys engaged in gun play at the park last summer and he was very disturbed while watching them. But then he doesn't watch TV so that kind of behavior has not been normalized to him.) Interesting link that Emily posted. Curious to hear more. E.
Killing a monster is BRAND new. And it came from Ninna, 4 1/2, but there's no keeping things from the younger siblings when you have them :). I'm going to guess that it came from preschool, along with some songs, stories, etc. Just as recently as a month or two ago, if Ninna were to maybe say something about killing a mosquito or something, she'd say "make it get dead." She didn't even have the terminology.
But the dreamworld doesn't last forever :). I actually thought a lot about this today, and I've already mentally written a blog post about it, so I'd love to have a discussion here about that soon!
I'd also like to add that while I'm uncomfortable with "killing the monster" (today it was an alien), I'd much prefer this play, in which they are working as a team to overcome the "bad guy," than combative gun play or anything of that nature.
I can imagine. Because the monster or alien is like the "dark force" within and without, something that marks the complexity of human nature and also that with which one contends throughout childhood and adulthood. Ideally channeled in positive ways. (Frued says that's art - ha!) Whereas combatitive play is violent sport. Killing for fun. Perhaps called poorly channeled dealings with the dark side. I don't know, but interesting to think about. E.
That is exactly how my children play. Everything gets hauled out from everywhere to feed the zebras, or soothe the crying pandas, or build a fence for the ponies. It looks all full of clutter and chaos to me, but seems to work in their world.
my 4 yr old plays like this as well. his favorite thing to do is to turn the couch into pretty much anything! somedays its a garbage truck, some days its a beach some days a rocket to the moon
i love seeing how other kids interpret the pile o' stuff on the couch!
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