Child's Play

Today was great! Our day was broken up nicely with an hour in the morning spent at the child care center at the hospital where we got to play with the kids in an attempt to observe and learn about various stages of child development. I enjoyed a Play-Dough session with a 3.5 yr-old boy named T.

Me: What are you making?
T: I'm makin' a crocodile
Me: Oh wow! That sounds scary!
T: I'm not scared of crocodiles
(T begins to stretch out the play dough)
Me: Now what are you doing?
T: I'm making the crocodile long.
Me: That looks like a pretty long crocodile
T: The longer he is, the more he can eat
Me: What do crocodiles eat?
T: (pause) I don't know
Me: Which side is the head?
T: (pointing to the bigger side) This one. I'm going to make a big mouth
Me: So he can eat lots?
T: (nodding head) Yup!


Then I saw another 3 yr old boy named L rolling little green bits of play dough

Me: Hi L, what are you making?
L: Sea cucumbers
Me: (laughing) Wow, you are making a lot of sea cucumbers
L: I'm making a whole family!
Me: (pointing at the biggest one) Is that the daddy?
L: (ignoring my question, starts to pound the sea cucumbers with his fist onto the table)
Me: Oh no! What are you doing to the sea cucumbers?
L: I'm making pancakes!
Me: Oh, I see.
L: (making all sorts of noises as he flattens them all out) bam bam bam bam!
L: (then he picks them up and rolls them back into balls)
Me: What are you making now?
L: I'm making rocks
Me: Wow, I've never seen rocks that green before
L: They are from the moon
Me: How did you get them from the moon?
L: I found them
Me: How did bring them here from the moon?
L: I flew in a rocket
Me: Oh wow, that sounds like fun
L: (starts smashing the moon rocks into the table)
Me: Uh oh, the moon rocks are flat
L: I'm making pancakes!