Seven and purging and make believe play

Today my sweet boy turns seven.... around this time every year we let go of the old stuff to make room for the toys that inevitably come with birthdays... this year was no different, except it was. Sunday Jack decided that he could let go of his playmobile guys. He has a fairly large collection including a big pirate ship; he has spent countless hours lost in worlds of his own creation and Sunday he decided he was too big for these little guys. My boy is growing up. I feel a little sad.

Since the collection represented not only a big time investment but a financial one as well. I decided to list it on a mommy listserv - within an hour some mom of littler boys had snapped it up. I told Jack he could have the money. Encouraged by the sale, the boy decided he could let go of his car collection, his musical instruments and his finger puppets. Anyway, he still has his vast empire of Legos, a huge collection of action figures and an enormous array of Yu-gi-oh cards. so I guess his imaged worlds are still going strong.

Which brings me to a bit of a professional crossover, I was reading an article by Bodrova and Leong about teaching kids make believe play. The authors point out that "back in the day" kids learned make believe play from each other in multi-age groups (read: running around with neighborhood kids) and today kids don't have those opportunities and so teachers need to help kids learn how to create elaborate play scenarios that can be extended and that allow children to truly "inhabit" their make believe worlds.

I sometimes worry about Jack learning all this since he is an only child, but as they described the highest stages of make believe play it seemed like they had been hanging out at our house on a typical afternoon. The planning and negotiating roles may take longer than the actual play and the child may act out the roles with imaginary partners. I have spent many an afternoon listening to Jack act out elaborate dueling scenarios with his Yu-gi-oh cards and an imagined opponent or talking to his Lego guys as they battle imagined enemies. I get a huge lift whenever I hear his voice change into his special make believe voice. I love that our life is slow enough that Jack has time to create and inhabit his make-believe worlds. Even now that he is seven.

What about you? What do you love seeing your kids do? When and where do they play make-believe?