Film Maker Gracie

I wrote the last post about Gracie's final movie project so quickly, I didn't even have time to edit and add pictures from that morning.

As you can imagine Gracie was quite proud of her work, and so were Thomas and I. Daddy was at work, but he was super excited to see the video when he got home. And he could see it, and I could post it because the kids were given a bracelet jump drive with their file on it to take home along with their certificates.

This was a really awesome camp.

Gracie is already talking about maybe doing the ibook camp next year.

And, I will put one little side not in here about the last day.  We saw ALL the kids works from her class, the 11am class and the ibook classes. And, I have to tell you as a person, and as a mother I was very disturbed by the really large percentage of "stories" that involved violence, death, destruction, police, and jail.  I lost count, but I can tell you it made up 90% percent of everything presented, and I am not exaggerating. The word "kill" and "dead" were used so often that I was really getting concerned about how Thomas was internalizing it.  We don't talk about death, and destruction and killing in our house. And I know that is a part of far too many boys vocabularies, but I don't want to explain these concepts to our 5 year old.

So, now while you roll your eyes at my parenting style which you are sure will stifle my kids and make them into prudes/unable to handle the world as it is--I will suggest to you that if your kid was asked to make a story or movie and present it to a large number of people: what do you think would be on their mind?  With Gracie, I wouldn't have had to worry even if I wasn't helping her and watching her make her movie.  But, what if she wanted to make something so dark and violent.  Would I have pressured her to pick something else? Would I have forbid it?  Would I have died a little as I watched it along with 30-40 other parents?

What are our children thinking about, and playing pretend or real?  While I am blessed to be at home and a witness to almost all the "play" that happens in this house, I think about the play I can't see when he goes off to school, and what she has been talking to and acting out with friends at recess.  Staying focused on protecting their little hearts and minds and worries will always be a priority for me, but today's "viewing" made it even more of a reminder to guard my children.

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