It's a favorite spot. The MAGIC TENT comes out of the closet and goes up as soon as a parent says a grandchild is on the way for a visit. It's a 4 x 4 foot square green plastic structure with a pointed ceiling tall enough for a 6 yr. old to stand up in with a zippered front flap for a door. The framework is made of 1/2 inch PVC pipe that goes together quickly and it soon fills one corner of the master bedroom. We throw in pillows, stuffed animals and brightly colored children's quilts and it's ready!
Giggles, knock-knock jokes and shadow puppet shows provided by a huge flashlight make sleeping in the tent almost impossible. It is sometimes used as a doghouse for stuffed dogs or a home for bears, bunnies, or baby-dolls. Nothing like a tent to fire up an imagination.
The real Magic occurs when the books come out. We read Dr. Suess, the Berenstain Bears, pop-up books, picture books, and Bible stories. All those characters come to life with dramatic readings, changes in voice or dialect. Eyes get bigger and little bodies squeeze closer together as new adventures are experienced. The Magic can be felt inside that tent and seen inside those impressionable minds.
We take reading very seriously at our house and hope to instill in all little tent people a love of books. We keep an extensive library for that very purpose.
Perhaps when they grow up the old fashion book will be obsolete. New technology may well replace those printed pages bound with glue and covered with a book jacket. Maybe touching the screen of a hand-held computer will be the common method of transferring information even if it is fiction. Perhaps holograms will replace those fabulous illustrations.
Perhaps even a MAGIC TENT will be considered obsolete. But I doubt it!
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