Being a kid and needing to learn everything from walking to talking involves a lot of repetition. No doubt this is why kids get drawn into routine so easily. It is part of making their life and surroundings easier to understand. For us adults most of it is old hat especially things like dressing and undressing. For me, two kids have taught me the dangers of undressing. For Felix it is just a fun activity which he is happy to practice over and over again, trying on his undies in every possible direction on every part of the body.
An extension of this is their ability to mimic a broken record even thought they have never seen, heard one. Just as I am writing this blog, Felix is chanting like a monk "co to jest, co to jest, . . ." (what is this at a pizza base waiting for tomorrows dinner) and now "to jest szklanka, to jest szklanka, . . ." (this is a glass, my ignoring him raises him steadily to a forte). And so it was when I acted out a story with some cars and wooden people. Each time I finished I got a reminder, "do it again" and over again.
Finally the repetition paid off, after about 15 stories. Felix decided he still wanted it again so he acted it out himself. I watched and enjoyed. Then he took it one step further, why should the ambulance have the important job of taking the injured boy to hospital? This is a time for Thomas! So Thomas chuffed over to the boy, told the car driver off, heaved the boy up onto the boiler and away they went to the hospital. Felix was not too impressed with me when I told him that the boy now had burns as well, from sitting on the hot boiler of the engine, nothing the doctor couldn't fix.
Looking back at it, my story was probably not fit for a three year old. This especially true once I filmed it with Felix and now watching him act it out. Basically a boy tries to cross a road and gets run over by a car. An ambulance takes him to a doctor who fixes him up before the child is reunited with his mother. The infringing driver is told off and the kid manages to cross the street to get to school. The strong moral overtone justifies the grim story. That said I do not think it appropriate to put our filmed story onto youtube.
