| On Wednesday afternoon at Cricklade Leisure Centre, Isaac (4) decided he was going to be a policeman! He took control as the group all sat very quietly, bolt upright, with legs and arms crossed and the wonderful manner and confidence he aired was fantastic! He decided to tap one person on the shoulder and tell them off as they weren't sitting with their legs crossed! This from a little boy who at one point wouldn't leave his Dad's side ! Since that week, there has been a great demand for the Policeman's uniform as all the children try to become that character and top of the list for flying off on our magic carpet is always - first stop the Police Station! (and quite regularly when we visit other magical places a police station just happens to magically appear!) What a wonderful sense of confidence and command in such small children! - November 2007 |
| On Saturday morning, we were flying through the air on our magic carpet. The group decided that we would "dive down to the deep blue sea" and sing "row, row, row your boat" on the way. William (4) decided that we all needed some paddles, so he went over to the musical instruments box, collected some long whistles for everyone in the group and he decided that we would use them as paddles to row us to the sea! Such wonderful imagination! - September 2007 |
I took a session at The Children's Nursery and at one point Leo* (4) decided that he wouldn't participate in the "imagination" of the characters and places that we had become by saying, "that carpet isn't flying, it's still on the floor!". This was absolutely Leo's* perogative but I decided to leave it and said what it shame it was that he wouldn't be flying with us up high in the clouds and that we would really miss him. After 5 minutes or so, the children decided that we were going to land our magic carpet at a dragon's castle and it was a beautiful and amazing sight when Leo* just decided all by himself to become that dragon and voluntarily brought himself back into the game, much to the children's delight. Leo* then stayed with us and enjoyed the rest of the session - May 2007
|
| Interestingly, at the same session, when we landed at the Princesses castle, I took the children over to a rug on the floor to peer at the Princess who was asleep. The children oohed and arhed at the blank space on the carpet as they allowed their imaginations to see a Princess. How beautiful it was when Rhiana* decided to "become the Princess" and lay down in front of us as if asleep. Naturally, many more Princesses then followed her lead! It was so inspiring to see such creativity and imagination in these lovely children - May 2007. |
| At a taster session in Shaw, West Swindon, I don't know what it is about dragon's but Dino decided that he would become a dragon with some beautiful flowing blue silk and some red silk slung around his shoulders that he decided would be his fire! Every now and again whenever we would be flying on our magic carpet, Dino would suddenly appear as his dragon and take us off on another adventure! It never ceases to amaze me the joy and freedom of expression that children carry with them. - June 2007 |
| Seby came to a session and decided that dressing up wasn't for him. It turned out that Seby felt he didn't need the dressing up to become his character. Once everyone had found something to wear, we went around the circle and described each of our own characters. When it came to Seby he told us that he was a Pirate - who needs props when you're three - you already are the Pirate! It was wonderful when later he decided he was a monster and naturally didn't have the constraints of costume to change his character! What a delight! - June 2007 |
*Names of the children have been changed |
