These fun wooden dolls are the modern version of paper dolls. Or at least that is my opinion. I love how the clothes come complete with shirts, sweaters, pants, skirts, dresses and shoes! And a magnet enables the dolls to wear all these fun outfits! 🙂 
There are times when a child may play with these dolls alone and most definitely out load for all to hear. 🙂 I have witnessed many young children jump head first into the imaginary world of their own story telling adventures with no one but the dolls in the area. When I have been able to listen to the child, I am so pleased with how happy, innocent the ideas are, and how freeing it is to be young and not care if you are “alone”! 🙂
When two children come together and collaborate on a story through the dolls it is amazing! The dialogue and creative imagination that flows from children enjoying their “play” is so rewarding! Now you may be wondering if this is a gender specific interest of play, but no it is not. Both girls and boys enjoy story telling through dolls and often dramatize real life events too. 🙂
What I like to encourage when I hear great story telling from either one or two young children, is to bring those ideas to the literacy area. We can go deeper with their ideas and the project may then take longer than one day. I’ve had young children take a few days with their project or a couple of weeks. It all depends on the interests of the children involved. When the stories are encouraged to go on they become more elaborate, thoughtful and entertaining.
As we all know stories do not always come from children’s minds. 🙂 I love the fact that in our time we have so many wonderful children’s books! Stories that are endless and feed the greed to read! Take some time to relax with you child or spark a discuss with your students by reading some favorite stories. You never know what you might learn or be reminded of when you pick up a children’s book.
Please share some of your favorite children’s books! I would love to see if I’ve read them or if they may be new to me. 🙂
Heidi, The Marigold School of Early Learning
