There was a recent link on my family's website to an article decrying the loss of downtime for today's children. In a nutshell, the authors did a study that showed a too structured childhood can lead to less imagination in children. Also, that too-specific toys kill the imaginative spark, i.e. toys that only have one function.
I was given proof this weekend that our children do not suffer from such a fate.
This was the result of my asking Nicholas to watch Alexandra for a bit while I washed some dishes. I came in to check on them, and he had made her into a unicorn. He was quite pleased with himself, and the other children found it absolutely hysterical. Lexi didn't seem to mind and left it on until the tape lost its sticky.
On Saturday I had to run down to the store and buy some milk for the weekend. Chris was at home, so I just took the baby and left the other kids playing. When I came back they had transformed the living room into an Indian encampment. They were also appropriately dressed, or rather undressed.
To make the war paint, they had licked the ends of Nicholas' watercolor pencils and drawn on themselves. It was surprisingly effective, and took quite a bit of scrubbing to get off at bathtime. Of course, every good Indian needs a "white settler" to barter with. That would be Sophie.
She made the "cake" in the left hand corner and also prepared quite a picnic to share with her Indian friends. Then Sarah killed a rabbit (stuffed bunny) and they roasted it over the campfire (upside night light). It was quite a feast, and they even let me join. They had quite the good time and even cleaned up rather nicely (meaning no screaming tantrums) when told to hop in the tub.
I am just glad that my refusal to entertain them every minute of the day has paid off, finally. While I type this they have been playing library. Any of our books that have the barcode on the back are available for checkout. I am the librarian, and they have been bringing me their books and library cards to stamp. Wonder if it will all change when they get their Wii????