At Miss Lisa's daycare we have been going on daily "adventures," a.k.a. "bentures" (according to Jessica and a few of the other children who struggle to pronounce that word).
If you were to ask my 2-year-old daughter, Jessica, about her adventures, she may tell you something like this:
"Yogi bear - ocean - Swiper get cookies - Dora and Boots - rainbow - boat in tree - ladder and birds help - waterfall - Chuck E Cheese's party..."And, even though none of that may make sense to you, when you see her eyes light up and hear the excitement in her voice, it won't matter... She'll make you smile, and bring you right along with her, into her 'world of imagination.'
For Jessie (and the other daycare children), the adventures we go on together are very real.
As a caregiver, it is SO awesome to see their creative minds working and to witness how much fun they have acting out different roles and coming up with new ideas.
Here is my rendition of our latest daycare "adventure:"
We began this particular adventure on a choo-choo train going uphill to get to our map.
Once we arrived at the map (which is actually the base of a light post), we read, "Jungle, Ocean, Bear Cave."
So, we began walking up the church sidewalk (the jungle) and we saw several snakes and tigers along the way. The snakes we saw were all "good" snakes and we just waved at them and said "hello" as we passed them by; however, the tigers we saw were "bad" and we tried to tip-toe by them so not to wake them from their naps. When this didn't work and the tigers woke up, we all worked together to scare them away (we counted to three and roared at them to scare them away).
Next, we came to the ocean (church parking lot) and climbed into our boat.
Usually our boat is stuck in a tree and we need to call for Diego to come help us get it down. Diego comes in riding on the backs of birds and he pushes our boat out of the tree and we all put our hands out to catch the boat.
As we float through the ocean we encounter a hungry shark. So we quickly cast our fishing lines into the water and catch some food to feed the shark so he will leave us alone. After feeding Mr. Shark we wave good-bye to him and move along.
Finally, we enter the bear cave (driveway entrance to church - shaded by trees).
We all get out our flashlights because it is so dark in the cave. Sometimes the kids tell me they see bats and water in the cave, but typically it's just Yogi, Cindy, and Boo-boo bears that we run into.
--when we first started doing these adventures, we'd run into "bad" bears that would chase us out of their cave...however, this was too scary for the younger kids, so we only see "nice" bears now--The kids talk to Yogi and Cindy and Boo-boo bears and ask them where to find Chuch E Cheese's (apparently we are going there for Dora's birthday party).
We make one last stop at Boot's treehouse and use a stick to raise up a basket of cookies we made for him.
Then, it's off to Chuck E Cheese's for the birthday party.
We head up the church sidewalk toward the entrance of the church and this is where Chuck E Cheese's is at. SO, the kids act out playing car-racing games, ball games, and shooting games and collecting their tickets as they finish each game. We all wish Dora "happy birthday" and give her our presents we brought for her. Then we "cash in" our tickets for prizes, and head back home.
We also run into Swiper several times throughout our adventures; we all say, "Swiper no swiping, Swiper no swiping, Swiper no swiping" And, Swiper says, "Oh Man!" when we stop him from swiping our stuff.
Although our adventures change slightly from day to day, there is a lot of consistency too. While I do assist with helping the kids act out some of the roles and igniting some of their creativity, I try to have the kids come up with all the ideas on their own.
The kids usually all choose a bike to ride, and I pull two of them in the wagon (Lia rides in with me in her snugi).
The following is a picture of Jessica and Carson just after getting back from our adventure. On this particular day, I let them each push a stroller/shopping cart (the two of them (+ Lia) happened to be my only two kids here on that day)...
‘If a child is to keep alive his inborn sense of wonder, he needs the companionship of at least one adult who can share it, rediscovering with him the joy, excitement and mystery of the world we live in.’
— Rachel Carson
‘Our greatest natural resource is the minds of our children.’
— Walt Disney
