Gallop Time

It has been well-established on this blog that Julia loves to gallop.  And by gallop, I don't mean just a simple carefree gallop around the backyard.  Her galloping, for those who haven't seen it, is a complete ritual, in which she gallops from the living room, through the dining room, into the kitchen, touches the kitchen cabinet with her hand, then turns and gallops back through the dining room, into the living room, and touches the living room window sill with her hand.  Then repeats the whole process again. 

Julia loves what we affectionately refer to as "Gallop Time," because, as you may have read on past blog posts, "Anything can happen!"  And by that, Julia means that she likes to get lost in fantastical imagination while she gallops.  The subject of her imaginings varies.  Sometimes she inserts herself into the world of Harry Potter and company.  Other times she creates her own imaginary characters as she gallops.  Heck, she even constructed a whole alt-universe kindergarten class last year, complete with names and physical descriptions of the kids she made up.  And all of this goes on silently in her head while she gallops, a smile on her face and a faraway look in her eyes, thumping along back and forth, back and forth between the two rooms.

When it's early in the morning, we don't allow Gallop Time, out of courtesy for our downstairs neighbor.  If Julia can't gallop, she will resort to jumping on the couch in order to do what she calls "my thinking."

Well, it turns out Julia has another outlet for her "anything can happen!" thinking time as well.

JULIA: (as we were heading out the door to school) Mommy?  Did you know that since I can't gallop at school, or, like jump on the COUCH, I have ANOTHER thing I do when I want to THINK about things?
ME: What do you do?
JULIA: Well, did you know that when I'm swinging on the swings, I do my thinking like I do when I gallop??

I did, indeed, know that, especially since Julia announced to me yesterday, on our way home from school: "Mom, did you know that I spent the WHOLE recess swinging on the swing, and I didn't even do anything else, because I guess I was just TOO BUSY thinking about Harry Potter!"

Apparently Julia's body needs to be in some sort of motion in order to do her thinking.  I mean, perhaps she's able to do SOME thinking when she's sitting still, but I guess ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN only when Julia is in motion.  Therefore, I can see why the galloping, jumping, and swinging is preferable.  After all, mere thinking is boring if anything CAN'T happen, but if anything CAN happen, it's kind of hard to resist, right?

Meanwhile, Madeleine has not been swinging at school, as her preschool has no swing set, but she has been catching up with her friends and teachers after the school vacation.  Today, during Share Time, Madeleine told the class about going to see the "Lego Movie."  And "Frozen," which actually happened months ago, not over February vacation, but maybe her Elsa/"Let it Go" singing is so ingrained in her brain that she literally feels like she re-watched "Frozen."

Here is Madeleine's project based on her share:

The figure on the right-hand movie screen is WyldStyle from "Lego Movie," and I have to say, that's really not a bad rendition!  What do you all think?:





















Madeleine's artistic prowess continues to amaze me.  I mean, it's kind of like she sits down with a crayon and a blank piece of paper, and thinks, "Anything can happen!"

Let the creativity continue to flourish, my daughters, in whatever form it may!