Mechanics, Sailors, and Crafters

 

As we are getting close to the end of the first term of the school year, we have been doing some very interesting things.  We began by working on a play village outside the school in the mud, after some very big rains.  As we talked about what you would find in a village, it became clear that some of the boys were very interested in making cars.  Children here build amazing cars out of wire and bottle tops.  They put a long handle on them so they can stand up or run and have the car going along right beside them.  So we have a group of the children who have been constructing cars.

 

Several children had no interest in either the cars, or building a village.  What they became interested in was making designs with yarn (called cotton here) and twigs.  Today it expanded to crocheting.  So I went to Liteta after school and bought more "cotton."

 

And finally a group of the children loved having all the water to play in between the school and the office and stores building.  They were out there in water almost up to their hips, wading, looking for fish, playing in the water, etc.  Today they took 2 large blue bins, the kind they sale for keeping Christmas decorations and other things in, and pretended that they were boats.  They took turns sitting in them, sometimes being pushed by others.  I know in the states that there are some schools that have to set up a water table for water play.  Ours has been provided by God with the rain and grasses.

 

This all reminds me of the way my mother talked about growing up, and going to school in a one room schoolhouse in Kansas, playing in the woods and along the creek during recess.  Even when I was a girl we would build pretend villages out of grasses, use things around us to make things, and pretend in very creative ways.  I'm afraid our kids in America today have too much provided and already made, so that they don't always get to experience the joy of creativity.