Perhaps this Princess Phase isn't totally useless

It's time this blog returned to its roots: shameless, unadulterated bragging about my kids. So here goes.

Last week Amanda spotted a long, thin cardboard box (we got a new floor lamp) and decided it would make the perfect tower for her Tangled play. She has been planning this play for a while now, and I'm pretty sure she spends most of her playground time at school searching for kids willing to play parts in it. She will play Rapunzel, of course. She is searching for four-year-olds willing to take supporting roles. There have not been too many takers.

Anyway, I cut a hole in the box for the window and took the box outside. Then the girls painted the box. It had to be painted because Rapunzel loves to paint. It also had to be painted in costume, of course.






Later in the weekend, Amanda found two pieces of cardboard held together by a piece of tape. (Yes, there is apparently scrap cardboard laying around my house. That's the kind of housekeeper I am.) "This would make a perfect book," she declared. I cut a few sheets of white paper down to the size of the book, and she glued them inside the cardboard, added yellow construction paper to the outside of the cardboard, then decorated it.

She spent a very long time drawing pictures inside the book to tell a story. I did a little bit of drawing, but this is almost entirely her work. Then she told me exactly what words to write on each page to tell the story. Here's how the book ended up:







Fun, Fun for Rapunzel


Rapunzel lives in the tower, and she's outside.

Flynn is running and the guards are chasing him.

(I drew those horses. Yes, they're horses, in case you couldn't tell. I would like to say I was trying to draw like a four year old, but honestly that's the best I can do. She drew everything else on the page.)

Flynn is climbing up the tower.




Rapunzel knocked out Flynn with a frying pan. (I drew the frying pan.)

Flynn is all tied up in the chair, and Rapunzel is asking him a question.



Rapunzel and Flynn are in the water trying to escape.

Back cover of the book. It's a cliffhanger! She'll need to write a sequel.

So my four year old wrote a book! Technically it has some rather serious copyright infringement problems, but I doubt Disney will sue.

Someday hopefully she'll graduate from re-telling princess stories, but this little project was pretty cool.