First the tractor knocks everybody down, then it apologizes, followed by a gentle explanation of why it’s mean to knock everybody down “on purpose.”
Then the game starts over with setting up the animals and making each animal noise and giving them all rides on the back of the tractor.
 |
| Mom, Red Riding Hood, The Big Bad Wolf, The Woodsman, and Grannie |
Okay, so you know the thing in the middle doesn’t look terribly wolfish, and I know it doesn’t look terribly wolfish, but my three year old thinks it’s The Wolf. You know, the actual archetype that appears in so many of his favorite stories. (Actually, I’m pretty impressed that it came out even looking remotely canine, since at one point it most resembled a wingless, gray duck.)
What’s going on here is that I’m assembling a “table play” set to use in a preschool lesson. I’m planning to use a small box to make Granny’s bed and then I’ll be done. Ian loves these wooden little people and we’ve also done the Three Little Pigs this way. You can buy these wooden peg people very inexpensively here and customize them to whatever story you want using paint or (as in this case) props and clothes. I’ve also seen it suggested that you create a set as party favors for children’s parties, which is an idea I LOVE and may have to use.
This is a very quick, approachable project. I created the forest backdrop as a mini-felt board using sticky-backed craft felt, a USPS shipping box, an exacto knife, a ballpoint pen, and a pair of scissors from the dollar store. The dolls’ clothes are felt scraps and yarn. I opted to sew them so that when the kids rip them off the dolls they aren’t ruined, but you could just as easily glue them on if your child is more enchanted by dolls than by seeing how they are put together. I plan to create a crochet pattern for what I did with the wolf, but you could also put grey felt ears and snout on one of the peg people. The less realistic the figures, the more details the kids fill in with imagination, so “perfect” is “finished so we can play with them,” not “incredibly detailed and realistic.”
We made a point to go hunt for sea shells. Mister likes them very much. He’d pick them up, talk to them, tap them with his shovel, and conduct various other experiments, but he was absolutely ADAMANT that we not take any home with us. “No, Mommy, we have to leave them here for other people!”
The best part was that he had propped up both feet, but one kept falling off and he’d put it back up without even waking. Guess the pre-Christmas excitement took a toll!
 |
||
| “Now Daddy needs some, too!” |
Do you think he remembers?
One of the amazing things about three is how well they are starting to play together. The kids initiated the game, kept it going all on their own, and loved every second of it.
…for Northern VA. No comparison to last year, thank goodness. Ian has informed us that he is all covered with Frosty Ice.
We’re fine with that, because, one year ago this week, we were digging our car out of the driveway without the aid of a snow shovel, trying to convince our two-year-old to help us by reminding him that “Rama’s got cookies!”
We’ll deal with the blanket of idiocy that descends upon NOVA residents when the first inch of snow accumulates… really. It’s no big. We’ve got shovels and snow melt this year- we’re good.
Mommy went first, of course, and even then he refused at first to have his hair cut. He did, in fact, utterly refuse to allow Miss Hilda to wash his hair, but he consented to let her comb it, and then, when she asked again, said yes to a cut.
The very nice older lady under the blow dryer kept telling the stylist, “don’t cut too much! He’s still little!” Thereby lifting the burden of anxiety over whether my baby would be utterly shorn from my shoulders, since she had it covered for me. In the end, Daddy actually couldn’t figure out that he’d had a haircut until he was told. So he looks tidy, and cute, and not at all drastically different. What a relief.
What? You want to see my hair, too? Well, okay…
I’m strictly a “wash and wear” gal, though, so we’ll see how it looks when I don’t have a professional styling it for me.