Lately I’ve been doing some reading on the Waldorf Method of education. While this is definitely a case of, “take what you want and leave the rest,” some of what I’ve read I definitely want. One of the things I liked was the idea that the more archetypical a toy is, the more your child will use his imagination. Now, a child who can turn an Elmer’s glue bottle top into a fish in a pond or a toy plastic corn cob into a duckling is having no trouble in this area, but still, I like the thought.

So I went on Etsy.com and ordered him some little people. No, not the Little People made and popularized by Fisher Price, some little wooden peg people. Six families of five, to be exact. When they arrived and I opened the package, his eyes lit up.

“Those are mines!” he exclaimed, demonstrating a very good grasp of the heart of the matter. He immediately began manipulating them and making up little stories.

“Here’s a baby and another one baby. This one is the Mommy. This one is another one Mommy. She got dressed. She put hers dress on.”

He arranged them in different groups and chatted about their interaction. They climbed the stick and played games together. This went on until bedtime. My only concern is that the smaller people are definitely choking hazards, so they live in a box on a high shelf for supervised play only, but that just means I won’t miss a minute of creative expression.