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In another place, I am having a discussion about 'play' and how it differs now from when I was a child in the early '50s. I guess we look at our own upbringing with rose-coloured glasses to some extent, and we may also forget some of the things we did and why. I cannot remember back to when I was 18 months old, as Alannah is. However, I do have strong memories from when I was 5 until I was, let's use 10. For some of that time I lived in Hornsby, and for some of that time I lived on a farm outside Denman in the Upper Hunter Valley.
I had neither play-dough nor a sand pit, but I did Matchbox cars, and I did have a dirt patch in which to play.
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This week, playing at Ma's, we introduced play-dough. I have no idea whether Alannah has used play-dough much before. She was hesitant on the Monday, but by the Wednesday she took to it with alacrity. For her, it has a very physical proponent. She like the feel of it, and the fact that she can mould it and pull it to bits. She is learning to roll it in her hands, and by next week maybe a ball will result. On Wednesday, I made her a Daddy and I made her a Mummy. We made balls, and snakes, and stars.
We have played with a sand-pit all year. We have play with small cars and trucks for longer than this year. But for the first time on Wednesday, we combined the two. We also used our collection of rocks, and shells, and leaves, to decorate the castle in the middle of our sand-pit, while the trucks brrrrmmmed around in the moat. I suspect this game with be expanded this coming week.
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