One thing I'm learning to cherish more and more these days is the time Daniel has at our house to be with himself, to dream and create. He really seems to need this quiet time, and tends to either dance - his multi-faceted dance, drama, stunt creations, build imaginary worlds with characters and complex scenes, nowadays mostly filled with battles inspired by Star Wars, Bionicles, Transformers,or simply build, create and draw.
Daniel spends half his time with me and the other half with is father. His week is very over-scheduled. He has two short nights with his dad, that are either filled with extra-curricular classes, and it seems, quite a lot of TV, TV in the morning over there most days, then off to Montessori pre-school (his dad's choosing, not mine) for 2.5 mornings a week, then back to our place, where his needs and drives are somewhat restricted by the other children in my care - though he's getting better at asking for alone time or mummy time.I believe he benefits immensely from the calm, quiet time, he gets evenings and some weekends with me.
These photos show a complex creation put together with materials that were just lying around, a maze with an entrance, a trap, and a statue in the middle. We'd been reading about Theseus and the Minator. After dinner, Daniel wanted to enact an adventure play with me where two characters who had helper robots had to find their way through the maze. It turned out they'd been tricked by their so-called helpers, who were in fact their enemies and had trapped them. Daniel suggested we trick them too, and try to lure them to prison by telling them we'd buy them some toys and introduce them to new friends. Mind you, he reassured me, this special prison was not a place to simply jail them, there they'd learn about what they'd done wrong, and perhaps could be helped to be better robots. I wondered what he could be processing though this story line...I marvel at how imaginative play is so essential to allow a child to process the realities of their life!
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