Turn Off the TV; Turn On Creativity!

Yesterday the kids were home from school for teacher inservice/Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Sure enough, the children woke up early--ready to take in a full day of doing "whatever". Aside from the occasional skirmish, all five of them played really well for the entire day. I had to break up a few battles now and then, help look for lost toys, feed and launder, but by late afternoon I noticed something very peculiar. Nobody had watched TV. ALL. DAY. !!

When Wynne and I are home alone during the regular school days, the TV seldom breaks into our home. I turn it on for Wynne to watch her beloved Max & Ruby and Dora, but for the most part, we find plenty to do to occupy ourselves. On weekends and evenings, however, after the homework is done, I will admit that the TV gets too much attention. I admit it: the electronic babysitter comes into play more often than it should. So to have a "day off" from school and TV, I was pretty proud of the kids. They spent most of the day blowing up the house and converting it into American Girl-Boy-World.

Yes my friends, we have become a part of the American Girl cartel. I'm not even linking to AG because if you haven't heard of it, you will soon enough. It is a powerful empire where 18-inch dolls and accessories require parents to take out a second mortgage. Ha, ha, ha, You think I am kidding. I wish I were.

But the upside to it is that my children learn American history through their dolls and books, and they also use their imaginations to create miniature versions of everything from Nintendo DS players to basketball hoops.

And thanks to Craigslist and creative people who know how to sew, we get lots of mileage out of knock-off $5 dolls and replica outfits.

Our friend Pat Jones can take a look at the pictures in AG magazines or photos provided of my kids in their favorite outfits and reproduce 18-inch versions of them. Pat Jones is the sewing goddess I will never be!!

So the kids spent the day playing American Girl/Boy. For those of you who think that boys don't play with dolls, think again. There is not a feminine, dainty bone in this kid's body, but he loves to act out adventures with little Brett Favre, Superman, or Indiana Jones. He even has a tuxedo for his mini-me. You can look through Cy's clothing box and see all of the phases he's ever been through!

The kids played dolls all day. They even set up a "photo shoot" and created their own fashion magazine. After that, they used my digital voice recorder to create commentary for a book we'll collaborate on. The working title right now is "A Day in the Life of an American Girl", but I'm hoping they get a little more clever than that. After all, it's Creativity Day, right?

Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you?--1 Corinthians 3:16