This afternoon has been play like a Victorian afternoon, it was supposed to last all day but I was not organized enough and had to go out for groceries this morning, as Victorian transport was not an option and it's too far to walk into Grand Bend, we drove and the morning was cancelled.
So, to this afternoon, I haven't been very strict with the Victorian thing (as you will see from the pics), I just wanted to give the kids a general sense of playing with their imagination without recourse to TVs, iPads, DS games etc. Here's my list of activities they could choose from
The paper dolls went down very well, Rose enjoyed colouring them in and playing with them, they have been named Sophie and Amy and have a number of dresses. They are currently residing on the window sill in the sun room with an array of clothes and accessories..
Jacob thought spinning tops were boring and these days he really has no patience for anything that he is not riveted by. He liked the zoetrope though (some v clever person has produced a pdf so you can just print one out and put it together, it takes a while but works pretty well) and made his own film strip of a dog jumping over something.
Marbles went down really well and they played that together and separately for nearly as long as the marshmallow poppers at the end of food week. I found the research interesting as I had no idea that there are rules for marbles and I came across this interesting snippet: getting your marble ready to flick with one knuckle touching the floor is called 'knuckling down'. I have filed that one away for 'wowing' someone with at a later date, probably over a pint or two.
They also drew on slates (bizarrely we have two in the house), played outside and read books and Jacob managed to get through until dinner time, Rose watched TV while I made dinner which brings me to comment that keeping children busy without screens is very tiring and time consuming, although they seem to manage just fine on the beach.
I also made Rose a handkerchief doll but she was not impressed, she said she already has proper dolls and if I put this one in the doll house she will throw it out. It will end up a poor foundling in the gutter, still, I suppose that's very Victorian.
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