Playing School

E has been playing school. She doesn't realize that her game actually began as a ruse on the part of M and her best friend L. Mandated to include E, they concocted a game of school in which they taught M's dolls and stuffed animals upstairs in my bedroom, while E taught her dolls and stuffed animals downstairs in the living room. Luckily E was perfectly satisfied with this arrangement so it was, for once, a win-win solution: she got to play their game and they got to play without her.

First she announced that she needed desks. I suggested shoe boxes, of which we have a plethora. She readily agreed, but said she needed lots, as she had ten students. I gave her four and said they could share. She lined up nine stuffed animals and one doll in front of the row of shoeboxes. Then she announced that she needed a bigger desk since she was the teacher. I suggested the plastic crate that holds the Legos. She thought that was a brilliant idea and placed it in front of the line of shoebox desks.

Then she didn't need me any more. She collected various items and lectured and instructed. I vaguely heard her as I went about my business. The school stayed up for two days in the middle of the living room, and she played with it several times.

Last night we were picking up the house. E was tired and fussy and had already helped clean her room and the sunroom, so when S told her to clean up the school, I said I'd do it. I put the students away in the stuffed animal basket in her room, and then I went to collect the shoeboxes. Opening one to put away some pieces of shoe-related cardboard, I discovered crayons and small pieces of paper, some written on, some not. All the other boxes had crayons and pieces of paper too. She'd really made them into desks.

Somehow this struck me as at once immensely charming and heartbreaking.