My son, the Viking
The Munchkin has a fascination with Vikings… and Romans… and Egyptians… and with anything “history” in general.
It all started with an audio book of Cressida Cowell’s How to Train your Dragon (btw, the plot is NOTHING like the movie), while he was still a preschooler. Soon we were working our way through the series, even convincing the school library to buy in the remaining books. We bought several more audio books, and then our own copies of the paperbacks.
David Tennant became a regular part of our daily breakfast routine.
Soon the Munchkin, after reading these fun, but historically inaccurate histories, started seeking more. We watched Time Team and Horrible Histories on TV. We visited museums and exhibitions. Keen to feed his interest, his delighted grandparents et al scoured the bookshops and supplied a number of excellent volumes.
And still he wanted more…
He enjoyed dressing up and role-playing, running around the backyard, a sword (stick, pole, garden stake) ever in hand. Every shower seemed to be accompanied by a young boy draped in a towel announcing, “I’m a Roman” or “I’m an Egyptian”.
The Viking Shield project commenced… a long, drawn out effort by both parents (with a teeny bit of help from the Munchkin) to turn a storm-battered gas heater hood into something the Munchkin could battle with.
And then there were the runes…
After reading the Viking Magic series by Anna Ciddor recently, he asked if we could make our own runes. Maybe they would also be magic! Secretly, I wondered whether this could turn out to be another “craft project” (and we all know how well THEY go)!
So rather than getting all cranky-pants about him not helping, I just let it go. I collected a range of suitable pebbles from around the place for him to choose his final 24 runestones. We worked through the characters from the book together… he’d select the stone, I’d paint the rune. Maybe some of his “magic” would become part of them this way. But as he sat with his nose buried in his comic book, occasionally looking up to vaguely point in the direction of the next stone, I realised that my understanding of such things were totally irrelevant.
He just wants to play. To create his own Viking Magic, imparting his own stories in his own games. He may make up hidden “magical” meanings for these stones. Maybe he’ll even make up secret codes using them. But he will play with them, over and over again.
As I painted a second coat on the stones alone, I had one of my crazy Mack Truck moments. It’s time to stop fighting him, and use my special gifts (i.e. painting accurate runes) to help nurture his passions and creative talents – his “sparks”. It’s time to let go of my adult expectations, and just enjoy being part of the journey – to use these experiences to enhance my own life journey too… maybe rekindle a few sparks of my own.
I’m not sure what is going to happen next or where this is going to lead, but in the meantime, keep an eye out for the #kidspark hashtag. I think it spells good things to come. (Meanwhile, my brain is TOTALLY exploding with the possibilities!!!)
Today I am grateful.
