It can be shocking to learn our kids’ perception of reality.
Rachel surveyed her daughter on this list of things that is real or pretend and asked others to do the same. I agree with her that it is VERY interesting to see things through the eyes of our kids.
So I present to you Exhibit A of my Glimpse into their Reality…
Wade: age 3
Haylee: age 8
| Wade | Haylee | |
| Princesses | real | real |
| Hippopotamus’ | real | real |
| Robots | pretend | pretend |
| Fireflies | real | real |
| Dinosaurs | real | pretend |
| Dragons | real | pretend |
| Dragonflies | really, really real. | real |
| Magic | real | pretend |
| God | real | real |
| Hearts | pretend | real |
| Unicorns | real | pretend |
| Presidents | real | real |
| Monsters | real | pretend |
| Police Men | real | real |
| Alligators | real | real |
| Kings and Queens | real | real |
| Castles | pretend | real (Wade: castles are real?) |
| China | real | real |
| Rapunzel | real | pretend |
| George Washington | pretend. no, not pretend. real! | real |
| Moses | real | real |
| Goldilocks and the Three Bears | real | pretend |
| Buffaloes | real | real |
| California | real | real |
My conclusion…
Somewhere between 3 and 8 a child goes from believing everything is real to being a smarty pants who is almost grown up.
Haylee only missed two, but she said she didn’t know how to answer for “dinosaurs” since they used to exist but now they don’t. So I guess technically she didn’t miss that one. :)
Am I crazy for being sad that she is too old and smart to believe in make believe things anymore??
Wade, on the other hand, is very much in the throes of believing in EVERYTHING. He answered most of the questions very quickly and matter of factly which I found very amusing.
It was too funny when he heard Haylee answer that castles were real. He said incredulously, “Castles are real???” Ha ha!
So what about your kids?
Are you brave enough to question their reality?? :)
Good job!! That's really interesting though because Ali (4) was opposite of Wade – unless she had actually experienced it in real life, she assumed it was pretend. Maybe it's a girl/boy thing?
This is super cute! I will have to see if there is much of a difference between my 5 yr old and my 7 year old…. ;)