Imagination Play

Athena has a terrific imagination. The other night we were driving home and she carried on a multi-character dialog for about 10 minutes. She changed her voice for each character, and the conversation was fascinating. I wish I could have recorded those few minutes.

Tonight she is acting out her other role playing that she made up one night when she was bored and lonely. She made up three characters: Mikayla, a little girl about 5 years old; Mikayla's Mother, and Mikayla's grandmother.

One night I was cooking dinner and I was visited by a really short old lady (Athena came down the stairs hunched over and using a baton as a cane.) She introduced herself to me as Mikayla's grandmother and wanted to see if Athena was available to play with Mikayla. I told her that Athena was upstairs in her bedroom, but she was welcome to see if she wanted to play. Later another woman came down the stairs and said she was Mikayla's mom. I had a nice conversation with her, and then she went upstairs to see if Mikayla was in Athena's room. Next Mikayla came downstairs and talked to me about playing with Athena and told me that Athena wasn't sharing her toys.

Athena now acts out these characters when she is bored and wants someone to play with, or when she is trying to avoid her chores, like cleaning her room. One day I will have to invite Mikayla's mom over for tea.