"This play is going to be out for three days."
The play started here with the items in these baskets. In the baskets are a mishmash of animals, little people, furniture, fabric pieces, blocks, magna-formers and more.
It seemed that somehow she knew exactly what she wanted to do. Did she pre-think this play? How did it begin so decisively? I'm still pondering that as her Nanny (Grandma). What I do know is that she is experienced at play with open-ended toys and loose parts. She has taken a toy and used it for multiple purposes forever. I think it is a wonderful ability that will help her to be incredibly resourceful and able to solve problems for herself in the future.
I was privileged to be in on the start of one her "plays." She is a great boss and let me know immediately that we would not be using any of the vehicles.
So I took them out and lined them up over on the side of where I thought the play was going to be.
She set to work and built this out of wooden furniture. Walls and a ceiling. She called it a "hut."
The hut had an "instant" secret door.
As the play started to evolve I stayed back more as a witness because it was clearly her own narrative.
This was the sister (the unicorn) that had to look after the kids.
Unfortunately I had to leave the play at this point but was able to catch up with it on day 2. A lot had transpired in my absence.
Something about the kids animal getting stolen by their best friend and they had to get it back.
The vehicles eventually found their way into the play because apparently these animals had to take the vehicles that were being bad and keep them over here.
Taped up bad vehicles.
The other vehicles found their way to the garage.
Classic open-ended toy. Dollhouse = Garage.
This is Elsa's house. It has a little door that can open and shut.
This is the other house where the kids live. Looks like I arrived at bedtime as they all had a cozy bed.
I noticed some lego play had been included at some point as well.
Lego is an awesome open-ended toy with multiple uses and great value with likely years of use.
"How come these ones are in the bus?" (Silly adult question) "Oh," she says, "that's their bed. They can jiggle it like this and fall asleep."
Classic open-ended play. Bus = Bed.
There were a lot of details to follow. I did not catch them all but apparently this little girl is Mychia, like Lucia (her cousin) but with a My. Mychia has an ice-cream stand.
This involved and intricate and seemingly never ending play continued on with the children having a picnic. There was a juice station where they could have blueberry and mint and huckleberry juice.
They had to share.
What a feast. Great sharing. See Elsa (the chipmunk) front and center on the table?
Little bits of felt were used for the juice. The table is a piece of painted wood. The animals all enjoyed the picnic.
I had just been to a picnic with my grand-daughter and she immediately incorporated it into her play almost as if she needed to play the experience she had in order to make sense of it all. There were a lot of people at this picnic. I'm glad she had the impression that they all shared. She also noticed there was a juice station. Interesting.
I'm grateful that I had the priviledge and time to share in this little girl's play.
It literally took over her whole room. So much energy. So much creativity. Bounds of imagination!
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