Fun and Games

As I write this, my 3-year-old and 5-year-old are in their room. It involves two bath towels laid end to end across the room with a gap in the middle and on both ends. The object as near as I can tell is for one to patrol while the other one looks for an opportunity to race through the gap or around either end. If the runner is caught, she is shoved back to the other side of the towel with force and glee. The name they have given this game is "Berlin Wall." It would appear that today's trip to the Imperial War Museum was not entirely lost on their young and impressionable minds. I am never sure as we drag little girls through one museum and historical site to the next whether all this (or any of this for that matter) is sinking in. Then they play games like the one they invented tonight, and I think perhaps we aren't wasting our time after all. I had a similiar experience two days ago in Portsmouth. As we strolled around the harbour, we observed a shallow slip in which some small watercraft. Cecily, ever-observant, looked over the rectangular, stone walled enclosure and asked, "Did Romans bathe there?" Indeed, something is processing in those little heads.