Being the Lego

For the Moose's third birthday, he wanted to dress up like Spider Man. I suppressed a laugh. With a sister born on Halloween his idea of birthday parties was that you wear costumes. Over the years they have accumulated a few dress up items which are kept on the floor, on the couch, under the coffee table, or in the chest in their room. They often root through the box throwing things asunder so they can run about in the day's flight of fancy. Transferring this kind of play to Lego or Playmobil figures seems to be in the same vein.

The Moose's love of history books with pictures particularly of soldiers combined with his inability to read  English has locked the graphic details into his mind. He spends inordinate amounts of his free time in various guises- World War I fighter ace, English Musketeer, American Patriot, Civil War Soldier- Confederate and Yankee, Mongol, Mughal, Knight, Vaquero, Maori, French Chasseur, etc. It is all about weaponry and surprise tactics. Sometimes I think he has become the Lego.

I first saw the "Animals at Play" video listening to the show now called On Being. Krista Tippet interviewed Stuart Brown in a show titled "Play, Spirit, + Character." The clip of a husky and polar bear romping in pure joy despite a likely empty stomach on the bear's part is a compelling call for play. It is what I remember when I start to stew about not enough time to get school, piano, homework, and English work done everyday because my kid's need to play! So in case you need an excuse for having no purpose kind of fun or letting your kid's have fun, watch this:

This was used in his 2006 TED talk below:

For the Moose's third birthday, he wanted to dress up like Spider Man. I suppressed a laugh. With a sister born on Halloween his idea of birthday parties was that you wear costumes. Over the years they have accumulated a few dress up items which are kept on the floor, on the couch, under the coffee table, or in the chest in their room. They often root through the box throwing things asunder so they can run about in the day's flight of fancy. Transferring this kind of play to Lego or Playmobil figures seems to be in the same vein.

The Moose's love of history books with pictures particularly of soldiers combined with his inability to read  English has locked the graphic details into his mind. He spends inordinate amounts of his free time in various guises- World War I fighter ace, English Musketeer, American Patriot, Civil War Soldier- Confederate and Yankee, Mongol, Mughal, Knight, Vaquero, Maori, French Chasseur, etc. It is all about weaponry and surprise tactics. Sometimes I think he has become the Lego.

I first saw the "Animals at Play" video listening to the show now called On Being. Krista Tippet interviewed Stuart Brown in a show titled "Play, Spirit, + Character." The clip of a husky and polar bear romping in pure joy despite a likely empty stomach on the bear's part is a compelling call for play. It is what I remember when I start to stew about not enough time to get school, piano, homework, and English work done everyday because my kid's need to play! So in case you need an excuse for having no purpose kind of fun or letting your kid's have fun, watch this:

This was used in his 2006 TED talk below: