Saturday, June 26, 2010

another awesome kid performance

Dieter had the idea yesterday that he would like to put on a performance of "The Three Little Pigs" for the family. He searched around the house, searching for pigs to use, but we only have one pig (the wooden one from the farm). I was super proud of him when he decided to be resourceful and make his own pigs. He did so with very little help and direction from me. It is so important to me that he learn to make and do for himself and that he be happy with what he creates. I admit that I made a few adult suggestions (making felt pig ears, using a bead or button to make a little pig snout) but he stuck to his own vision of what he wanted to do. Hooray! In my parenting I feel so strongly, more and more, that I want my children to do their own work. Having had two older ones go through school, I was always amazed at the level of adult intervention in the children's projects and reports. Not my kids (they always turned in projects that were distinctly kid-made), and I think they benefited from that. I want to do the same with these little ones.
Here is a scene from the play. The big bad wolf is approaching the first pig, who built his house from straw.
Here is the last scene. The three pigs have retreated to the house of the third pig (built from brick). They are boiling up a pot of hot water for when the wolf comes down the chimney. You can see the wolf on the left destroying the house of the second pig. A big congratulations to Dieter for putting on such an awesome play! Looking forward to many performances throughout the summer.

6 comments:

Elfin Goddess said...

OMG Mary Beth! What a beautiful & imaginative young man Dieter's turning out to be! Your posts are a reflection of how effective & unadulterated your parenting style is. And I love how your values are being imbibed by your lovely children - the older & little ones. We're yet to plan a baby, but I hope I can be even a fraction of the kind of generous & loving mom that you are! GOD BLESS! xoxo, Av

liz said...

That's fantastic! I love how the structure of the block houses is different, so clever. I so agree about kids' projects being made by kids. I'm a teacher and I see this a lot. I try to convey to parents that helping (if the kids need it) is wonderful, but doing it for them does them no favors. I wish more people knew the difference.

Dieter is getting so big!

Nicole Vangen said...

I so agree with you Marybeth - I just let Ella make a sailboat using glue and popsical sticks and some magic clay - it was hard not to intervene and many times she got frustrated but once completed we both learned a great deal about ourselves and each other.

Cheers to being a mindful Mama!

nicole said...

clearly you have nurtured great imagination in your children.

ellie said...

Oh, this is so cute! And -- my little boy guessed it was the Three Little Pigs simply from looking at the first photo. Dieter did a great job :-)

Andrea said...

Very cool! How neat that he can think and carry out a project from idea to creative end. And I agree about letting kids do their own things--the first time I saw the projects in my older son's classroom (first or second grade), I was shocked by how many appeared to have been made by extremely talented and dexterous scrap-booking afficianados. Really, what do kids learn from that?