. George gets to ride a subway train for the first time and, of course, accidentally leaves the man in the yellow hat behind. Adventure ensues, as is expected, but so does learning about maps and direction. When she was done reading Ava said "I'm going to make my own subway map" and then several hours of imaginative play followed. She and her brother both made maps of an imaginary subway in our hometown and listed all of the places they would want the subway train to stop.
They used our glider as the train car and played together (without fighting!) for hours. They frequently checked their maps, visited all kinds of fun places, and pretended to get lost, miss the train, and other things that required some creative problem solving. I had to smile because this is the exact kind of activity that I would offer as an extension of a book, and she came up with it all on her own. Now part of her ingenuity might be because our playroom has been off limits for the past two weeks. After it got so messy that you could no longer see the floor, my husband and I thought everyone needed a break from the playroom and the overwhelming amount of items inside of it. While we go through and purge and organize, it has been locked up during the day. We have noticed that the kids are getting much more creative in their play and are turning towards art and coloring more frequently. I don't plan to get rid of all of their toys, but it has sure been a nice break.
Today's adventures reminded me of a quote from Mr. Rogers and I will leave you with that:
"Play is often talked about as if it were a relief from serious learning. But for children play is serious learning. Play is really the work of childhood."
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