Their most recent past-time has had a lot of role-playing. Daniel has a knight costume, complete with shield and sword (a la leftover bargains after Halloween!) and his recent mission in life has been to protect "his lady" (Hannah) and the children (Caleb and Abby), from the bad bad giant (a very large weed) in the backyard. He hacks away at the giant, and trims him down to size, and then grabs Hannah's hand and races her away from the bad giant and up to their castle - the play structure that Peter built. Hannah, always up for a good pretend, plays along with all kinds of fainting and flowery words, while attired in big cherry printed rainboots, muddy clothes and a delicate flower crown. It is worth the price of admission!!!
Early (as in 6:30) this morning they were emperor penguins, taking turns with their egg (a small travel alarm clock), alternately standing very still with the egg on their feet (penguins keep the egg on their feet tucked under their "brood pouch"), and racing to the ocean (Mommy and Daddy's shower) to eat up all the fish and krill they could, then "tobagganing" back (on their tummies) to the other one to trade places.
Sometimes Daniel is a soldier and Hannah is a military nurse. Here she gives him "CPR," while he waits patiently
then she writes him a prescription.
In case you can't read it, it says:
Daniel's Prescription: Daniel is going to spend most of his life in bed, so by the time he is 60 years old, he will be able to go back to war. The bad news is, that when he is 70 years old his scars can kill him.
So with all that drama in mind, I guess I shouldn't have been surprised this morning when I discovered that Hannah LOVES - opera. It is sooooo dramatic!!! Yesterday we studied the composer Richard Wagner, so I asked my dad if he had any Wagner recordings to supplement our study. (Most people think to teach art from a classical method - studying the masters, but I am not artistic. However, I do LOVE music, so we study music in the classical way - studying the masters.) So far, I've had lots of recordings to share, but I'm not that much into the heavy orchestral mode of Wagner, although I did grow up hearing a good amount of it, as my dad was a devoted opera fan for many years.
This morning I popped "Lohengrin" into the VHS after Peter left so I could nurse without distraction. Hannah was glued. So was Daniel. I could not pry them away - even for breakfast almost an hour later! They can hardly wait to watch more!
All this seems very providential because Peter and I have always joked that Daniel was destined for opera because he has the most amazing projection ability while still carrying a tune. Unfortunately for him, he is only allowed to be an attorney or rocket scientist - according to Hannah.
Oh well. Maybe I should teach them to multi-task their make-believe. ???
1 comment:
I love the imagination of your kids. Joel has that kind of "big" imagination, too. We were just reading The Brave Knight by Mercer Mayer tonight. Its about a little boy who wishes he was alive 1,000 years ago. I think your kids would like it as much as he did :)
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