The Three Little Pigs
Posted by Nona Nita's Blog at 1/17/2011 3:47 PM 
Categories: Kids Still Say the Darndest Things
Tags: children cute kids grandparent grnadparents grandparenting pretending fairytales The Three Pigs
Categories: Kids Still Say the Darndest Things
Tags: children cute kids grandparent grnadparents grandparenting pretending fairytales The Three Pigs
So Hannah is spending the night at Nona’s and we decide to take out the puppet theater and have a puppet show. Out come the Three Little Pigs puppets and we divvy them up between us. I’m the Big Bad Wolf and she takes the roles of all Three Little Pigs. We line up all the dolls on the sofa to create an audience and pretend to collect the tickets. We kneel behind the puppet theater together, and the show begins.
Three
times I lift up my puppet and say in a deep, scary voice, “Little Pig, Little
Pig, let me come in.” “Not by the hair on my chinny, chin, chin,” she replies,
manipulating her puppets, each time. “Then I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll blow
your house in,” I continue, playing the ham by huffing and puffing and blowing
like crazy. After each huff and puff, both Piggy Number One and Two run away to
their other brother’s brick house. After Piggy Number Three’s house refuses to
fall down, the script, of course, changes. “Then I’ll climb up on your roof and come down your chimney and eat you up!” I roar, expecting her to reply with the
standard “Go ahead” while she starts to build the fire and put the pot of
boiling water over it. “O.K.! YOU CAN
HAVE MY HOUSE!,” she shouts looking up at me a bit shaken. Instantly realizing that she is truly upset
and has obviously never heard this old, unrevised version of the tale, I stifle
a smile, and switch mid-stream quickly
adding, “On the other hand, looks like there’s a fire in that fireplace. I’d
better just run away, myself”. I happily see the look of instant relief on
her face. I give her a big hug and kiss, reminding her that this is just
make-believe and we are only pretending. I make a mental note to be more sensitive to
these kinds of things in the future, then, I marvel at having the opportunity to
catch such an intimate glimpse at how scary the world can sometimes be to the
mind of a 4 year old.
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Such a good reminder that they do hear and process what we say and do! We're still all working on bad language.
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Actually, when I wrote this I didn't make the connection to the debate sweeping the nation right now about how we might inadvertently influence people with our violent language, but your post brought it home to me. I guess when it comes to grandparents and grandchildren, the teaching and learning goes both ways. Considering my profession, I should have been more aware of the effect that my words would have had on the child, but I got caught up in the drama and forgot myself. Won't let that happen again. Innocence is much too precious to endanger with an outdated fairy tale meant to caution children living in a different time.
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Thanks for sharing. I just got puppets for my 3-year-old grand-daughter. Your 3 little pigs helped me see what I can do with her. No scary stuff, of course.
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I got the puppet theater at a garage sale for a song but a tension rod with an old curtain in a doorway works just as well. Have fun with your grand-daughter.
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How vivid the imaginations of children! And they truly do process quickly. When my daughter was about four, we would say prayers together every night before she went to bed. On the first night, after I said "Amen" she looked at me and asked, "Mommy shouldn't we say "Awomen too?" She was destined to become so much like her mother!
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So cute!
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My oldest grandson (age 7) loves puppets. I have some wonderful pictures of him putting on a marvelous show with puppet airplanes that involved a lot of taking off and crashing, and several lines of "Oh Save Me!" A bit scary for his younger brother.
The joys of a puppet theatre is such a splendid way to play with grandchildren.
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We sometimes forget how scary and sometimes gory the classic fairy tales are. Remember the version of Little Red Riding Hood where the wolf eats Grandma, and then the woodsman cuts the wolf open and frees Grandma? That one's a little too graphic for me, maybe because Grandma gets eaten!
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