Tuesday, November 16, 2010

We Play - Helicopters, Trains and Automobiles


This week has featured a great deal of interest in transportation from all of my girls. My eldest's school was visited by a helicopter about 10 days ago, and all the kids got to have a look inside, which sparked my 7-year-old's interest in all things that fly. "In defiance of gravity, Mummy!" as she gravely announced to me ;-) A self-directed project has resulted, with Miss 7 producing a booklet on "Helicopters and Other Non-Plane Flying Things" (which, alas, I am not allowed to photograph, although she is fine with me mentioning it).



This has coincided with the almost-2-year-old's discovery of, and instant passionate love affair with, our small electric Thomas the Tank Engine train set. All my girls have enjoyed the Thomas set, and have enjoyed building on the experience by using blocks, plastic animals and toy cars to create towns around the tracks. It's been fun watching the older girls, who are 5 and 7, play quite sophisticated stories with the trains as the centre, while Miss Toddler loves nothing more than to sit amongst Thomas and Percy as they race around the tracks.


Perhaps in an not unrelated development, the toddler has also found a new favourite book - The ABC Book of Cars, Trains, Boats and Planes. Her most favourite of all? "COPP-TA, MUMMY!"

They have all been loving their transport this week, while Mummy has been buried in NaNoWriMo, Christmas preparations, and work, but not too busy to zoom a few cars around on the floor every now and then!

5 comments:

  1. I have three girls too! And yes they have a special place in their imaginations for cars/trucks/trains. Meerkat (17 months) calls Thomas trains 'toot toot'. Awww, so cute! xxx

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  2. Oh a helicopter! what a cool thing to have visit school! Looks like this sparked loads of great fun!

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  3. Heidi had a helicopter visit her school couple weeks ago too. She was so excited by it and we dug out our toy helicopter from our Thomas set to have a play with.

    Love it when real life events like that spark off fun play scenarios.

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  4. The book looks great! My son loves anything do to with tranportation.

    Please link this activity to Read.Explore.Learn.
    http://www.jdaniel4smom.com/2010/11/readexplorelearn-thanks-giving.html

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  5. Wow, the helicopter visit would have been so cool, what a great way to motivate children's interest and learning. Great to see you playing again :)

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