Imaginary Phone Calls

Both of my kids love playing with toy phones (or old mobiles).  They obviously see me on the phone a lot because they copy my stance and mimic phrases I often use in conversation!  Sometimes my daughter tells me who she is “talking” to on the other end.  Sometimes I pretend I’m talking to a real person too.  This week though the game went to a whole new place.

We had just finished reading her kindy library book for the week, Do Like A Duck Does (by Judy Hindley). The toy phone rang so I “answered” it and pretended it was the mother duck calling.  I improvised conversation based on the text, which went something like this:

“Hello Mummy speaking.  Oh hello Mrs Duck.  How’s your day been?… What’s that?!  You took the children for a walk and a fox tagged along?!  Goodness me!  What did you do? … (giggle)  And you made him quack?  And eat worms?!…(giggle)  Well, it sounds like you taught him a lesson.  I’m glad it all worked out in the end.  Bye for now!”

Of course, my daughter had completely dissolved into hysterics by the end of the conversation and wanted to have a turn too.  The pretend phone rang again and she proceeded to have a similar conversation with Mrs Duck.

The following day she wanted to play phones again.  Building on the success of the day before, I took things a step further:

“Hello Mummy speaking.  Mr Fox you sound terrible.  What’s happened?  Oh dear, you tried to trick Mother Duck? You know she’s very clever and doesn’t like anyone messing with her babies… I understand you’re hungry.  How about you go and dry yourself off and make some nice soup instead?… Ok, I hope you feel better soon.  Bye bye.”

What a powerful tool for helping a child to see different perspectives on the same story.