Imagination.

Anna Claire lives in an imaginary world much of the time. Aside from doing art, reading, and playing in her kitchen, she spends her time at home creating and building scenes to take what's happening in her mind and make it reality. And what's going on in her mind is often connected to a book she's read.

In just the past two days, she has played: circus, restaurant, contest, zoo, parade, and going to the beach.

One of my favorite scenarios was her picnic at the beach during bath tonight. Like I said, Anna Claire's fantasies are often based on a book we've read. It took me awhile to realize that her beach picnic was a reenactment of Curious George Goes to the Beach, leaving out very few details! She "paddled" out in the water, chanting "paddle, paddle, paddle" to fetch the picnic basket just like George. She explained that the basket was empty because she had fed all the food to the seagulls, just like George. She did add her own little flourishes, such as needing an empty bubble bath bottle so she could pretend it was her sunscreen. Anna Claire also, calls out, "Time for waterfall! Everybody come over!" whenever we turn on the faucet to rinse her hair. :)

Anna Claire also set up a "contest" after reading Tarzan Goes Bananas. It didn't take me long to realize she didn't really understand what a contest was, she just knew Terk and Tarzan had one in the book. So we talked about what a contest was. This led to us playing races outside. She loved me saying, "On your mark, get set, go!" and running to the finish line. She wanted to play again and again. :)