Ah, the joy of having two girls. Or two children. I’m not sure if gender makes a difference here, but sharing … oh sharing. That bastion of kindness and sisterly love. I jest. But most of the time, my girls are actually pretty good at sharing and taking turns, and more often than not, when there are issues, it’s because the youngest – Aviya, aged 21 months – has upset the balance and won’t share.
It’s easy to immediately call out Ameli – aged 4 years 3 months – because she’s the oldest, and she should know to share. And generally, Aviya shouts the loudest. Of course, when you take the time to notice ‘who had it first’ it turns out the culprit changes with the occasion. I often feel like a game referee!
The book “Mine” arrived here a few weeks before Christmas, and went straight into the cupboard waiting for an opportunity to be read, and today, a quiet, rainy Sunday became that day.
Mine, written by Sarah Hammond and illustrated by Laura Hughes, is a story about a little girl, Kitty, who plays at being a ‘cafe lady’. Her friend Lea comes to visit, and to be fair, is a bit loud and bossy, and soon Kitty doesn’t really want to play with her anymore, hiding all the cafe foods and guests in her tent. But, oh no! hiding away in the tent, Kitty and all her (stuffed animal) friends are feeling miserable. When Lea asks if she and the farm animals can join them, Kitty suggests an indoor picnic, and Kitty, Lea, the cafe guests and the farm animals enjoy a fun afternoon and share the cakes Lea brought with her.
The obvious follow on for that is to create a little tea party for ourselves, which is just what we did.
It’s lovely when you can talk about taking turns, sharing, the end of fun when you’re not able to share nicely, and then take turns being the ‘cafe lady’. The nice thing about stories and role play is that lessons that could seem tedious on paper, (Take turns being the shop keeper. Discus the value of sharing or taking turns. Talk about paying for what we eat in the cafe. Bring in money, cost and change – light math) all transfers very easily and without effort in play.
On our table: Voila Cupcake Stand, Voila Play Sushi, Bigjigs Tin Tea Set and Melissa and Doug Food Groups.