The other days it was pirates and indians. Today they younger ones are pigs, G is a pig eating giant. I found the "pigs" tied up to a post outside, one in the "oven", while the giant ranted and raved and explained his dastardly plot. Even the 2 yr old was involved, as the giants accomplice. She was so cute to watch as she listened intently to her instructions, responded, and followed as best she could the villain's plan.
Sometimes they take out all of the scarves and a picnic blanket to create a pirate ship. Sometimes they steal all of the bandannas, find a bunch of chicken feathers and play indians. Sometimes, they march around the house with sticks for rifles, singing "soldiers of the old home guard", then pretend the picnic table is a magic flying bed. Some days they get out all of their costumes and create a zoo of regular and magical creatures. Other days they'll go crazy with Mom in the kitchen baking, mixing, melting, and cleaning up. Yup, they even like the cleaning up when we get in there and get to work.
Our children are book reading, puzzle solving, make believe, musical kids. Any story they act out they can and will put lyrics to and sing at the top of their lungs. They collapse on to the couch in giggles while the eldest reads aloud Junie B. Jones. They build tents, boats, cloud paradises in their bedrooms. They paint newspaper, make bookmarks, and other paper crafts on rainy days. They make up fantastical stories about anything their imaginations can come up with. They love to write them down into their own "books".
Sure, they get an hour or two a week of computer time. Sure, we watch a movie here and there. But there is no such thing at our house as Saturday morning cartoons, or Nintendo, or whatever game boy-like-thing is the latest and greatest right now. They have better things to do. They express themselves. The interact. They socialize. They PLAY! And I never hear them say they're "bored" except away from home, where they don't know what they CAN do yet.
Sometimes I think that if we didn't live "all the way out" here this wouldn't be possible. They would be pestered by neighbors, whose mold they won't fit. They'd be constantly trying to figure out where they stand with the kids in public school and why can't they afford all the stuff their friends have. The older ones would feel pressured to give up make believe prematurely. And like so many other children now, they would be looking for some source of entertainment instead of using their minds to entertain each other.
We live a pretty simple life out here with our goats, chickens, cows, and so on. But our children are really happy kids - Who get to enjoy their childhood in ways not available to most children nowadays. I am very grateful for this opportunity for them. I am very grateful for the challenges we face out here, because we reap great rewards when overcoming them. One of those rewards is this blissful childhood for our children.
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