Womze - Cross Cultural Parenting

Last weekend, I took the kids to watch Nick Jr Storytime show.  There were four shows, Ni Hao Kailan, Backyardigans, Wonder Pets and Dora the Explorer - all moderated by Moose A. Moose.

I could barely wait for the show because I couldn’t wait to see Baby Brother’s excitement when the Backyardigans came on stage.  Whenever the show comes on the TV, he never fails to jump up and stump around in a frenzy along with their music.  I had prepared myself to spend some energy restraining him when he sees his favorite characters.

Reality was a little bit different.  He watched the characters with studious concentration.  Every now and then, he would point out to me who they were (in case I didn’t get it).  “That’s Tasha.”  “That’s Uniqua.”  He was pretty calm.  But obviously enjoying himself.

On our way home, he told me, “Dora and Boots, awetsome!”  It was cute how he said.  And made me feel that every penny spent watching the show was worth it.

What I did not anticipate was the continuing effects of the show.  Since the show, Baby Brother has been initiating a lot of role playing with his big sister.  And not just with characters that were in the show.  He would tell her, “I’ll be Boots, you be Dora”, “I’ll be Tigger, you be Pooh”, “I’ll be Hoho, you be Ni hao”.

I started to wonder what about the show sparked this new-found interest in role-playing.  He has been to watch Stellaluna and he’s also watched Disney-on-ice Let’s celebrate.  Neither of the previous shows encouraged him to role play the way he’s doing now.

After giving it some thought, my theory is as follows:

• Stellaluna was not a familiar character at the time he watched it.  He just accepted what he saw on stage.
• Disney-on-ice characters were extremely realistic.  Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse looked the same as they do on TV.  Baby Brother was extremely excited at the time to see beloved TV characters.
• Nick Jr Storytime characters were less realistic.  They were obviously people in costumes.  In the case of Wonder Pets, they were people operating puppets.  Darling Angel complained to me at length when we got home that all the characters sounded different than they do on TV, and they were just wearing costumes, and some character had a girls voice instead of a boy’s voice etc etc.  (She insisted she enjoyed the show despite these observations).

Before buying tickets for the show, I had read a few reviews online.  The majority were positive but a few people complained about some of the costumes not being realistic enough.  Apparently, this is not a negative, but an opportunity to teach the kids what ‘role-playing’ means.  It helps them break the assumption that these characters climbed out of the TV screen to spend an evening on stage entertaining them.  And that is a great thing.

 According to this paper by Doris Bergen, high quality role play or pretend play in children is linked cognitive development, social and linguistic competence and academic skill development.  The paper concluded,

In sum, there is a growing body of evidence supporting the many connections between cognitive competence and high-quality pretend play. If children lack opportunities to experience such play, their long-term capacities related to metacognition, problem solving, and social cognition, as well as to academic areas such as literacy, mathematics, and science, may be diminished. These complex and multidimensional skills involving many areas of the brain are most likely to thrive in an atmosphere rich in high-quality pretend play.

If you need one more justification to take your kids to watch live theater, think about that.