Knights of the Mysterious Alphabet

My mornings are filled with the wonderful energies of two precious boys. 

While G-Bear is away at school, the little men of my life rule the roost.

The difference in tempo and topic during our time without big sister is amazing.

Slowly, I am learning how to craft this time to capture the imaginations of my boys.

On the one hand, I want to stretch E-Bear's hungry young mind,

while still preserving Buddy Bear's full participation.

So, last week, we created a game called,

"Knights of the Mysterious Alphabet!"

As most good games do, ours began with costumes...

...and a dragon hidden in the backyard.

We also prepped for the game by hiding the letters of the alphabet throughout our backyard.  Some letters were made our of sticks in the grass, some were on pieces of paper taped to bushes, still others were written in tape or chalk on our walkway. Then, I gave the boys a "map" to follow.  As you can see, it was really an alphabet connect-the-dots that I connected in a strange order.  

E-Bear's job was to start at the "E" in the backyard and then find each hidden letter in the order given to him by the map.  Buddy Bear's job was to grab the letters after E-Bear found them.  Ultimately, the letters would lead them to the dragon, so that the boys could defeat him.

The quest was challenging at times. 

Some of the letters were camouflaged quite well.  The knights had to hone all their energies to stay on the dragon's trail.  Occasionally, a benevolent fairy mother had to appear to give the boys clues as to where to find the next hidden letter.

 The knights were persistent, however.  In time (about 5 minutes), they were able to find even the sneakiest letters.  

 Then, it was time to do battle!

And, thank goodness, because the future of our kingdom was definitely in peril.

Fortunately, by working together, the knights were able to defeat the dragon.  Several times.

Then, 

it was time for our victorious heroes to break for lunch.