Tick Tock, Get Out the Blocks!

Red Village is next to Blue Village

The 'burbs!

Do you live on this street?

You can still see the skyscrapers from the burbs.

I liked the lil blue village. I need more blue blocks!

When was the last time you played with some toys? Better yet, toys that don't require batteries, that don't need to be charged or need a decent signal to work?  Recently I was doing some lesson planning and brought out the building blocks for my classroom and well....I just started playing.  Before I knew it, I had built an entire village! It was incredibly engaging. The world tuned out. I was five again. Just with bigger fingers and better dexterity. haha. But my mind was there. I had no worries on my mind. I didn't care what I looked like at the moment, I didn't care about the bills on the counter, the phone that rang, buzzed and beeped. And those dishes! Oh the dishes! I didn't have to do those, for after all, I was FIVE YEARS OLD AGAIN! All that was on my mind was finding all the blue blocks to make a blue village.  Troubling, because I didn't have enough blue blocks. I had to go with red. Red was good. ooooh but then there's yellow, too. Hmmm....It's my little red roof village.  The people that live on the street are super nice and their kids are always outside playing ball in the street, or up in that lil tree house in the great big tree in their backyard. Don't you see it? It's right there.....

After hours (hours? well...I actually have no idea how long it was, it probably was only 20 minutes. But that 20min was funfilled!) of playing, building, creating, and pretending, I was done. I stood up and looked at my village. It was great! Yes, I'm saying it....I'm praising my own work! Why not.  We as adults try so hard to not boast about our work.  But then in doing that, after awhile, you tend to truly believe that your work isn't that great. And surprise, you don't do anymore work. But DON'T LISTEN TO THAT VOICE! YOUR WORK IS GREAT! Why? Because you enjoyed creating it, that's why!  So here I was standing and staring at my marvelous lil creation. And what did mish do?  (got out my camera - of course)

So I urge you to take this challenge.  Go find some toys that don't require signals, batteries or gadgets and let yourself play. Build. Create. Imagine.  Listen to that lil child inside you.  That child isn't worried or stressed.  He/she wants to play! Run! Relax! and of course, giggle! Listen to the sounds of the blocks, Legos, sticks, rocks, whatever it is you found and just imagine. 

Enjoy!