Hestiancy

One of my favorite books is Natural Learning Rhythms: Discovering How and When Your Child Learns. For me it has become a sort of talisman and a source of calm. In it, the authors talk about how before a major brain/body/life change children show a period of "hesitancy." Sometimes it appears as a return to old behaviors or ideas, sometimes it is general disquiet or frustration. However it appears, it is to be noticed and lived with. Nothing to solve, just be, and then watch what happens.

I think Evie is in a very easy hesitancy. She has definitely moved into a new phase, out of "Body-Being" and into "Emotion-Being" and she is stretching and growing her independence in HUGE ways. Lately there has been a need to return to games of imagination and exploration. When she was 4 and 5 we could spend whole days immersed in some sort of imaginary play. In the last few days there have been three very dramatic and intense "pretend" games wherein we are both totally taken into the game. Today I was ready for more after our first adventure, but Evie needed to stop. She went and read a book for a few hours.

I love the intensity and new topics of these games. The first one was a crime/spy story, played at night with disguises and codes. The second was a journey to discover Atlantis in a submarine.

Today we built Machu Piccu in the living room. Evie was a sorceress and I was an anthropologist. We each made a bunch of artifacts (separately) and then hid them. Then we started the game. It was remarkable for several reasons: we had made similar marks to represent similar things without having talked to each other, I could see the vast amount of history she has absorbed by the sophistication of the story an our totally made-up explanations of things, there was so much more complex thought than there used to be in games like is when we played 5 years ago.





All in all a very satisfying and interesting morning.




After a long period of alone time for both of we re-grouped in the afternoon to watch the Magic School Bus (also hasn't been seen in a few years) and have the Barbie Olympics.

I am excited to see what is coming!