Circus Joy becomes Play Joy!

I always find it so interesting how kids process their experiences as well as how they "take" from one activity or experience and incorporate it into their play. The next experience occurred spontaneously the night of Kathrynn attending her first circus (which she and Wes attended together):

Kathrynn called Wes and I into our living room to tell us that she had a performance for us! She came out wearing an outfit that is for her baby dolls- a size 2T dress and bottom set!!! She is a petite child, so easily stuffed herself into this outfit! I videoed the first part of the performance, and unfortunately turned it off before it got to the good part and where I finally realized what she was doing. She was imitating the performances of the clowns she’d seen that day!

She was basically doing slapstick, and it was fascinating for me to watch as I realized what was happening! The costume was picked for the absurdity value, and then the crazy dancing with her doll was to show their zany antics, and then what I didn’t’ capture on video was the funniest thing of all- she performed this slapstick routine that was very Charlie Chaplin like: she dropped her dolls hat, then went to pick it up, only to drop the doll, which led her to picking up the doll, only to dropping the hat, which led her to drop the doll…. ect! So this went on and on and it was so amazing and funny to watch her portrayal of slapstick comedy. She used great facial expressions and body language as well to express to us that she was doing this silly kind of slapstick that she had witnessed earlier that day!
This shot was the begginning of her solo act w/ Papa Baby Doll!


After her solo performance, she pulled Wes into the act, where they acted out scenes they'd seen the clowns doing earlier that day. It was SOO cute and fun to watch. :)

In this one I think they were reenacting a chicken (played by Kathrynn) chasing a clown dressed up as a chef (played by Wes). At the circus the chicken was chasing the chef around w/ a big fake knife. lol



This was another scene acted out from the circus that I didn't completely understand since I didn't go myself, but was still funny to watch. lol

After all the action was over, we went into Kathrynn's room where we played a game with the clown cards she'd collected that day. She made up a game that involved memorizing the names of the various clowns. It was a bit mentally challenging but really was fun, and great to see unfold from her first moments of creating the game until the very end when we were all playing. :)



Here is the video clip, which i unfortunately stopped before the crazy slapstick stuff started!