On Veterans Day, after we raised the flag and watched some local coverage on television, I took my 3 year old outside and we played with his little toy soldiers.
While I am a big believer in taking just about every toy outside, toy soldiers are a natural for outdoor play. We set up the soldiers in the grass and along the rocks, bringing in a few more rocks from around our garden.
He also has several army trucks, which we ran back and forth between the platoons. I added some water and made mud for them to run through, which really excited my little boy!
He flew planes around the yard, and I made a mental note to find him some of those little guys with parachutes on their backs.
I watched as he collected leaves, small sticks and other natural things from around the yard, and used them to build a bridge and beds for his "men". He sorted the leaves, using big ones for the mattresses and blankets, and little ones for pillows. He even attempted to make a small tent with a few of the largest leaves, but it wouldn't stay up. I was tempted to help with that, but realized he was learning more from his failtures than he would from my assistance.
He also has a few boats, and had it been warmer, we would have set up his small wading pool to sail the boats across the "ocean". I plan to remember that on the Fourth of July.
Under our oak tree, we set up a camp and brought out our lunch to eat while he played. Some of the "G I Joes", as he calls them, were brought over, and they sat under the tree with us to eat.
He's only three, and doesn't understand the workings of war, but I'm much older, and don't either. As we played, with the sun shining on us while we laid in the grass, I talked to him about his grandfathers, who both served, and his great grandfather, who was a paratrooper in Germany during World War II. I also talked about the idea of freedom, and how the men and women these toys represent fight for us.
His older siblings came home from school, and immediately joined in with him. The innocent game my son was playing, where none of the toy soldiers had died, and were much more concerned with jumping from the tall rock towers he had built, was over. The plastic men now battled one another, in hand to hand combat and decisive battles where recovered acorns served as cannons balls, knocking down entire troops. Medics rushed the injured off the field, to a make shift hospital fashioned from a spiral notebook from my older son's backpack. Even our NuNu Kitty, who had spent the afternoon lazily watching us from under a bush, was transformed into a battle cat, carrying men to war on her back. True to any war, both sides claimed to be "the good guys", and were not exactly sure why they were fighting.
I know some friends who don't let their children play with toy soldiers, claiming the violence associated with them, and that most of them are holding guns. I understand and respect their opinions on the matter, but I also appreciate the lessons my children learned, playing with these simple toys, that don't use batteries, make noises or, thankfully, involve any kind of "screen".
The game ended shortly after I went in to begin dinner, as the sky was turning. I stood in the kitchen, browning the ground beef for our chili, listening as our children recounted for their dad and me the different ways Veteran's Day was observed during their school day. My son's school had an assembly, and my daughter's class took turns telling about the Veterans who had served in their family. We then sat together at the table, and thanked God for our food, and for the men and women who have served and sacrificed.
