By JoAnne Pastel, co-founder, Farmer’s Hat Productions co-author Bur Bur and Friends book series

My son, William, is currently obsessed with pirates. In fact, the other day, he boldly instructed my husband to “Walk the plank!” and “Swab the deck!”

After doing a little research, I realized that his pretend play is helping him to enact and explore different emotions. His pirate antics are usually testing out things like being brave, acting powerful or angry and, once in awhile, what it’s like to have some fear or anticipation about the “evil pirates” lurking just around the corner.

This pretend play is also a key part of my son’s interaction with his preschool friends. It allows them to bond on a unique level and test out different ways of interacting. It’s not always total sharing and happiness, but for William, having a friend join him in playing pirates is helping him learn more about taking turns and other coping skills.

One final thought: A key part of our Bur Bur and Friends book series and products is to celebrate diversity and represent multicultural and biracial families through our products. What strikes me when I watch William and his friends is their ability to play with a diverse group. They truly enjoy diverse activities and friendships. This is what we are striving for: to reach kids at a young age and reflect the diversity of the real world.

Below is a photo of my pirate with friends at a recent St. Paul Saints baseball game. It was “Beard and Mustache Day” and we made the most of it!

Please let us know if you have any comments to share about role playing (what comes after pirates?) and nuturing your kids’ friendships.

Pirate Bur Bur and Friends enjoy a day at the ballpark

Seed Newsvine

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 21st, 2007 at 9:49 am and is filed under Community Board. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.