The wind has been howling. Howling so much that my little 3-year-old has been using the word howling. With that wicked wind, the play comes inside. This time in the form of a horse, carriage, and a princess passenger.
I love this sort of play...the dress-up, make-up, be whoever-you-want-to-be imaginative play. It reminds me of when I was a youngin' making up my world. I remember spending a lot of time by myself pretending. I grew up on 3 acres but it was surrounded by large wooded areas and a quiet road. I was out there, outside all alone (with my imagination) for hours upon hours. And like many parents, I do tend to romanticize my childhood and this aspect of my childhood in particular. But doesn't it sound great?! Spending after school and weekends wandering the woods as a grade schooler. Trudging through ponds, playing in old shacks, climbing rock walls, skinning your knees...you know, being a kid!
Not these days. At my parent-teacher conference yesterday, we were chatting about this type of imaginative play and how it is often outside and how outside time (especially alone) has been dwindling. Parents do not want their children to roam free or be outside unsupervised. Also, those outside spaces are fewer and fewer. This all reminds me of a book that has been on my list for ages, Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv. Although, we try as a family to get outside as much as we can. I think I need to dust that book off and read it to remind myself why it is so important to get out in nature.
But for now, with the wind and winter around the corner, sometimes the horses do have to come inside. I will just try to remember to stay out of the way.
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