The Volcano

I always feel like my children are adventuring when we go to a theme park. Do you take your children to theme parks ? Do they get a feeling of exploring a new world ? Does it feel like an adventure always bringing new surprises ? Do your kids feel like it'S real life for them ? Do you role-play the adventure with them ? Do you make them play their part in the adventure ? Do you tell stories the next days enhancing the experience of the memories created ? Tell me your story, here is mine...

The Little Girl entered the dense forest. The forest was dense and as she walked through she had to get the giant palm leaves of her way. She couldn't see except for the next giant leaf in front of her. She remembered stories of people who used the giant leafs as plates to eat food. It was said the food was tastier when you ate the vegetables off the giant leafs with your own hands. Fried bananas on the leaves with rice was the favorite food of the Little Girl's friend.
She wondered what fruits she could see on the plants, she believed she saw bananas, mangoes and coconuts. And she liked all those fruits.
Another giant leaf in front of the Little Girl. The leaves were so big that it was hard for the Little Girl to push the leaves so she could pass. A monkey came by the Little Girl, he was standing in a branch just above the banana tree leaves. The monkey looked curious at the Little Girl, and the Little Girl looked back curious at the monkey.

The monkey gave a big shout and the Little Girl stopped. When the Little Girl looked down in front of her, she could see a river, and she was on a ledge. The monkey saved the little girl from falling. The Little Girl gave the monkey a big smile. The monkey came down from the branch and gave a piece of mango to the Little Girl. That piece of mango was so sweet, the Little Girl delighted herself with the sweet mango.

She started climbing down the ledge towards the river, and the monkey led her way down through a safe passage. The Little Girl climbed down the ledge excited, she could see other kids crossing the river in wooden rafts. She wanted to cross the river in a raft.
As she approached the river, there was a dock with an old man with a big beard. The old man looked like Nicholas, but was not dressed in the red suit the Little Girl found very funny. But it was not snowing, the red suit would be to hot now.
The old man said: "Hello Little Girl, do you have something for me ?". The Little Girl remembered the coin Papi gave her. She fetched the silver shiny coin from her pocket and gave it to the old man. the old man pulled a wooden raft and helped the Little Girl get on top. He then pushed the raft to the river with a long staff. The Little Girl was excited has she crossed the river. The monkey sat on the raft, sticking it's fingers in the water as to test the temperature. She reached the other side of the river and continued her journey. The monkey followed her.
The trail was full of dangers, first a big pit, the Little Girl needed to swing on a rope to cross the pit. The was a muddy slide, as the Little Girl slide down, she could feel the increasing speed and the shouts of the monkey behind her. They soon reached the bottom of the slide and continued the muddy trail. They had to push many balls that where in their path to reach the other side. Once they reached it they found a huge net which they climbed. A narrow passage was in front of them, and the Little Girl just ran sideways into it. Soon after they reached the end of the trail, and they saw a majestic volcano.
Guarding the path to the volcano was a mighty dragon. Each of the dragon's teeth was the size of the little girl. But that did not inspire any fear on the Little Girl's heart, instead she leaned forward with the monkey and jumped on each giant leaf surrounding the mighty dragon, the leaves acted like a trampoline and the Little girl jumped high enough to go over the head of the mighty dragon as it breathed the fire. She followed the monkey. She jumped once on the dragon's head and slide down the dragon's tail. She was again in the path of the volcano, and nothing more to stop her from reaching it.
The volcano laid in front of them, and the Little Girl started to climb, but the climb was slippery, for the volcano spit a liquid mud that made the climbing difficult. The monkey could not climb any further, but the Little Girl did not quit trying, she continued to climb. At a moment it looked like for each step she gave forward that she slide back two steps. But she continued, she insisted, and as the climb became more slanted the Little Girl climbed more slowly and more carefully selecting with precision each placeholder for the hands and feet. She climbed, some moments she almost felt quit, but somehow she felt encouraged to continue. She saw other kids failing to reach the top, one after another she saw them returning to the volcano base. But not her, she continued and pressed on with all her courage and determination.
She reached the top of the volcano! She sat for a while, admiring the surrounding, seeing everybody from high above, seeing the other kids failing halfway. She was victorious. Today was her day.

The Tent

What happens when you dress up your child in costumes ? Does your child play the part of the costume ? Does he enter into roleplay ? Do you play games with him in costumes ? What are his reactions ? Does it generate stories that live for a while ? Tell me your story.
Here is mine...

The little girl tied the red scarf around her neck. It was part of the little girl's dress code together with blue jeans and yellow shirt. A white waistcoat with black patches topped by a cool cowboy hat.

Sheriff Woody would definitively pick her for deputy. The little girl was soon to meet the Sheriff as he was out searching for the lost black sheep of the herd.

The little had made a drawing of when Sheriff Woody crossed the bridge at the borders of the town. It was an impressive moment for the little girl, for she had never seen anybody go so far from town, and even less to cross the bridge to unknown land. The drawing was to be her present to Sheriff Woody. She made the drawing with all the details, the green Sheriff with the big blue sheriff cross that went from boots to the sheriff's hat. The noble and faithful purple horse to every detail crossing the long red bridge over the curly blue river. You could see the fear in the sheriff's eyes as he tried to avoid eye contact with the huge mouth green crocodile with five dangerous teeth. It would certainly be very bad for Sheriff Woody if the huge mouth green crocodile would have laid the two top teeth or the three bottom teeth in the sheriff's leg.

The other side the little girl did not see. She only heard stories from her father that was working in the saloon cleaning glasses all day. But her father was the best bartender of all the town. There was not a better bartender in all of the town to be found, even at the only saloon where the Indians went to fetch the firewater. The little girl never understood why the Indians liked firewater or firerice, or firechicken, or firepotatoes. All of those firethings made her breath heavily and drink a lot of water. But the Indians liked their curry very much, they eat it all day, they eat it all night, they were always eating curry.

But the little girl's father did tell her the stories of the other side of the bridge. Father always told her the stories of the strange land of the Indians. The little girl even listened once to her father talking with the Indians after he had sent her to bed. She did not sleep. The little girl and her white stuffed dog Lightbulb had gone on tiptoes to the saloon's kitchen door and listened on father speaking with the Indians.

Father told the story of the magic tent that traveled to the moon every night that the moon was a full circle up in the night sky. It seemed that the Indians traveled many times to the moon, and brought all wonderful things from the moon. And one time Sheriff Woody went to the tent to have tea with the chief father of Tiger Lily and Peter Pan, it was when the astronaut crashed on the moon. Sheriff Woody with the help of Peter Pan and the magic tent went to the moon to rescue the astronaut.

Now father gave the little girl the magic tent. It is now in little girl's room. Every night that the moon is a full circle, the little girl will sleep in the magic tent, and in the mornings will tell father the real stories of what happens in the moon. And she knows the secret. The moon is friend of a painter. But the painter is very bad, he is always painting the moon and erasing the moon to make the circle good. The painter does not know how to make good round circles, that is why he is always erasing and painting the moon.