Thursday, February 10, 2011

Cave of Wonders


Inspired by the fantastic Teacher Tom and his blog entry on a "light and dark den,"  I started begging my parents for dark colored sheets and disco balls for my vision of how I could replicate this in someway.   When I finally had a few sheets and had rounded up some Christmas bulbs that were quite reminiscent of disco balls (and one "modern" light disco ball to be used at a later date), I assembled this cave under the train table.  I had to leave the little hole in the front so that I can see what is going on in there, for safety reasons and because of regulations.


Inside there were a slew of pillows, three mini disco balls attached to the underside of the table in a way conducive to spinning, some glow in the dark stars and moons on the underside of the table (also a parent donation), and three flashlights.


They were mesmerized by the light reflecting off the mirrored balls....


... and the patterns made on the walls, "ceiling," and floor....

They made shadows on the wall and told ghost stories.


Stories about kid- eating bears...

and even a scary story about "bloody bones" passed down from Dad.

And when it was time for lunch, they begged for more time in the cave, and were only convinced to leave with promises of doing it again this after noon and the next day.

It was a place of discovery, a place to bond, a place to escape, and a place to enjoy a little bit of quiet.

The kids called it a "cave," and I jokingly called it a "cave of wonders,"  but that is what stuck with them, and we cannot wait to spend more time in the cave of wonders tomorrow.  :-)

3 comments:

  1. That looks like so much fun! I want a cave of wonders at work. =]

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  2. I love this idea for a play area. I liked Teacher Tom's light and dark den idea and yours is neat as well. I've recently started following your blog. I've included your post on my weekly favorites here: http://play2grow.blogspot.com/2011/02/weekly-favorites-for-february-13-2011.html

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  3. Hi,
    Thank you for commenting on my weekly favorites post. I usually publish all my comments, but somehow last night, I had clicked on the wrong link and your comment got deleted. it was the last thing on my long list of problems with technology yesterday. If you had ever returned to the post and saw it wasn't there, I wanted you to know why and that I didn't get rid of the comment on purpose. Have a nice day!

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