Thursday Holy Land Blogging 051911

Earlier tonight, I was sitting at my computer, and SteelyKid came running over. "Let's go to Israel. Pretend Israel." she said in a conspiratorial whisper.

"Why are you whispering?" I asked. "Do we have to whisper in pretend Israel?"

"Yes," she replied immediately. "Because there are bears."

The origin of this odd conversation was today's "trip" to "Israel" at the JCC day care. The pre-schoolers all got out in the hall, sat down, and pretended to ride an airplane to Israel. Once there, SteelyKid's class made like good American tourists, and went shopping. She excels at shopping.

This was a big hit, and has prompted a variety of travel-to-Israel related pretend games tonight, including this week's Toddler Blogging:

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That's Kate and SteelyKid riding in a car, or possibly a bus, or maybe a plane, on their way to Israel. She tried to rope me in, but I needed to take Emmy for her walk, so I begged off, saying Emmy and I would meet them there. "Have fun walking to Israel!" she called.

Apparently, after getting to pretend Israel, they had a dance party. Because, I guess, that's what you do when the bears aren't around.

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According to the Old Testament, Israel not only has bears, it has bears that maul children. True story.

Fun fact: "Have fun walking to Israel!" can be said in exactly the same manner as "Have fun storming the castle!"

Which, of course, we did.

I have a nasty suspicious mind, and I think that comment #3 is spam cunningly disguised as a double post.

By Alistair Wall (not verified) on 20 May 2011 #permalink

Nice to see she brought her golf clubs to pretend Israel.

I have a nasty suspicious mind, and I think that comment #3 is spam cunningly disguised as a double post

It was. The Turkish name is a dead giveaway-- I get a slew of those every day, and have to manually delete them.

Of course, having deleted that, your comment pointing it out is now #3, which gives it a nice Gödel statement kind of vibe...

Nice to see she brought her golf clubs to pretend Israel

They're not just golf clubs-- I think they're the walls of the plane/ bus/ car, as well. They're very versatile.

So... the kids live inside a story by Philip K. Dick? But considering the nature of the economy, grown-ups have no right to feel superior.

BTW, this reminds me of the fictional "drop bears" of Australia that are used to scare tourists. Do the bears sit up in the orange trees waiting for people to walk underneath?

By Birger Johansson (not verified) on 20 May 2011 #permalink

Heh. My almost three year old daughter is big on pretend travelling games at the moment. With grandparents plane trips away, she's even got some experience of going on planes to vaguely remember. And thanks to "We're all going on a bear hunt" (dunno if you have that one in the US; I think it's a UK book), we're even getting a fair few bears at the moment...