The birthing stories have taken us across so many deep, intimate emotions over the last few weeks. At the same time many of our children have been reminding us that they are ready to be taking steps from our carefully crafted nests. It is back to school time. For many, it is first days of school! This reminds me just how precious time is with my little one. While I mourn a little bit for what could be those last sweet little days of her letting me call her “baby”, I am excited as she leaps out to prove herself in the classroom. We tie learning to the home in as many ways as possible. It started out as a way for us to stimulate her growing brain. We could teach her to value learning in ways that would bring us together closer as a family. Little did I see that would also keep her connected to us in her early school years. Where we would teach her through books and experiences at home, she now comes home to teach us what she got to learn while we were stuck at “boring, old work.” We are eager pupils. We actively teach her lessons less starting this time of year. Instead we like to learn from her.
While we are busy blowing off steam from the week, we seek out some fun. The community pools and splash pads are just about to close; so that will no longer do. Because her mind is active all week, our daughter would be just fine beating the heat in front of the computer. That is a no go for us. Instead, we have found significant joy in family time at the Great Arizona Puppet Theater.
It is a nice, cool, family place. They run fantastic puppet shows year round often based on classic children’s stories. Our daughter’s favorite show two years running has been “Hotel Saguaro”. It is an adorable and oh my! educational tale about Saguaro cacti. The plays bring… get this… books and education to life. She is, of course, too busy laughing to notice. She started laughing at 3 and she is still laughing as she approaches 7.
I have often worried that she will not know the classic stories that were dying out even when I was a child. Reading her the antiquated books from my time seems destined for questions like “were dinosaurs really at your 7th birthday party?” Great Arizona Puppet Theater can teach her “Three Little Pigs”, “Rumplestiltskin”, “Three Billy Goats Gruff” and many more in ways that make children feel as if the stories were made just for them. She begs us to go to the shows. She loves to sit on the “kids only” rug with the other unsuspecting children as the parents enjoy a double feature- an adorable puppet show and their adorable children learn.
At the end the puppeteers come out to give the children some more information about the puppets. We usually head to Pita Jungle a few blocks away for a nice little snack and to discuss how we learned the same story- in a different way- when the dinosaurs roamed.
So- to hold on to those sweet little moments a little longer- might we suggest a show at the Great Arizona Puppet Theater? We have found it to be a great way to be together while learning together.
