Shadow theatre / Pozorište senki

When given an opportunity and freedom to do things their own way, kids always surprise me in a most fantastic way. I had a completely different idea and vision for making the screen for our shadow theatre and puppets that we made the other day. But, the kids couldn't wait for the screen to be made, and they decided to use our decorative paravane instead (that was also once handmade and was used for other purposes). So here is what they made! All by themselves! "The Jungle Book".

This is the backstage. A very busy backstage.

After experimenting with the stage (screen) design and shadows, they turned over to explore the sounds and instruments! The backstage fun was as exciting as the front one!

Puppets for a shadow theatre / Lutkice za pozorište senki

I like these simple ways to extend children's drawings into toys for playing. V loves to draw and loves to play, too.  Here, he drewg with a white pen on black construction paper – the characters from his favourite Jungle book, but then he drew some more animals from the jungle, and from the savana, too.

Veoma volim jednostavne načine da se dečiji crteži pretvore u igračke. V voli da crta i obožava da se igra. Ovde je crtao tankim belim markerom na crnom pastel-papiru likove iz omiljene mu Knjige o džungli, ali onda je dodao još neke životinje iz džungle, a i neke iz savane. 

Aha. Now I see a fox, too. And a puppy. That's the kids way.

Sad vidim da se prošunjala i jedna lisica, a i jedno malo kuče. To je taj dečiji pristup.

After V drew all the characters (and baby Z drew some too - first drawing to the left :), I cut out the drawings and wee fixed them to these wooden sticks.

Nakon što je V nacrtao sve likove (a i beba Z je dala svoj doprinos - prvi crtež levo na fotografiji gore), isekla sam ih po konturi i zajedno smo ih zalepili na drvene štapiće.

And now all thats left is some mini puppet theatre to enjoy before we make a canvas or paper screen for a real shadow theatre play.
Sada je ostalo još da se uživa u mini pozorišnoj predstavi sa papirnim lutkama, pre nego što napravimo paravan za pravo pozorište senki.

Drawing and eating lunch / Crtanje rucka i rucanje

Whenever the kids don't have a toy or an item they need for their play – they draw it. I love this simple, inventive attitude to solving problems. What is more fascinating is how satisfied they are playing with their handmade toys and how deeply they get envolved in the play. It seems that it realy doesn't matter what the toy is, but what the kid can do with it. Here we have some lunch drawn for playing and eating a very healthy meal full of delicious veggies that grow in our garden. 

Kad god (moja) deca nemaju neku igračku ili predmet koji im je neophodan za igru - oni ga nacrtaju. Obožavam ovaj jednostavni, inventivni pristup rešavanju problema. Ono što je još zanimljivije - je zadovoljstvo sa kojim koriste nacrtane igračke u svojoj igri. Izgleda da zaista nije važno kakva je igračka, već šta sve dete može s njom raditi u igri. Ovde imamo nacrtani ručak za igranje i ručanje jednog vrlo zdravog obroka punog ukusnog povrća koji raste u našoj bašti.

Here we see V drawing some candy, cake, lollipops, chocolate and ice-cream so he and baby Z can have after lunch.
Ovde V crta bombone, kolače, lizalice, čokoladu i sladoled tako da on i beba Z mogu da se zaslade posle ručka. 

And baby Z drew some spaghetti...
A beba Z je nacrtala špagete...

 ...and some green peas...

...i malo graška...

And then they rushed to eat it all...

A onda su navalali da sve pojedu...

...yum yum yum...

...njam njam njam...

And some sweets for the end. Delicious!

I malo slatkiša za kraj. Ukusno!

Toys of his Own / Njegove igracke

Once your kid starts going to school, you can not save him anymore form the influence of new technologies. Most kids already have their own mobile phones, or other gadgets. Even dough kids are not allowed to take mobile phones to school, they all talk about them. And about lap-tops, i-pads, tablets, etc. So, in only a few days we knew some new words like: Mac, Samsung galaxy, Sony experia, Nokia, just to name a few. So, here we got it. A new interest. Gadgets. And what to do at school when you are not allowed to bring them, or if you do not have some of your own? Make them. 

Here they are: touch screen mobile phones and a photo camera.

A tablet.

A lap-top.

Some school mothers even said: Since they started making these paper-gadges, they completly lost interest in playing with the real ones.