It was six months ago that I last wrote about our bedtime dino-storytelling, and it has continued since then, every night. The dino-cast has expanded slightly, but after New Year there has been a dramatic change in the direction this never-ending story is heading and I thought that was worth a few words. When I think back at the years that has passed since my son started kindergarten, we have had a few different eras when it comes to made up long format chapter stories. Thomas the Tank Engine-era, when Thomas and his friends were exploring the world. Kindergarten-friends-save-the-day-era, where my son and his friends had all kinds of adventures together. Since one year back we have been living in our Dino-era but now that era is morphing into the new and exciting Dino-Star-Wars-fusion era.
I have since I was young been a fan of the Star Wars movies and books and so has my brother who has given my son a few Star Wars LEGO sets over the years. Building these sets, looking at the LEGO catalogues, peeked a curiosity in my son about Star Wars so he stared asking me a lot of questions. And then over Christmas when we visited Sweden and he got to see my old Star Wars encyclopedias, he got even more interested and started to ask even more questions. Add to that the children’s Star Wars stories book I got for my birthday and you have a young boy who is now deeply immersed in the Star Wars universe and wants to know everything there is to know about it.
When we came home to Japan again after our holiday in Sweden, my son suddenly one night asked me to include the Star Wars characters in our dino-story. And so I did. Now Yoda is training the dinosaurs to become Jedi knights, and they are completing rescue missions and exploring the universe together with Luke Skywalker and Han Solo and Chewbacca on the Millennium Falcon. Of course the droids are there too, my son has really come to love them, and even Darth Vader turns up from time to time. Fortunately he has a soft spot for playing games with the dinosaurs, so he is not completely lost to the dark side.
I am sure I will have a reason to come back to Star Wars many times in this blog. Every day lately my son is building his own Star Wars creations using his LEGO blocks, while I try to answer Star Wars related questions in a child friendly way. Both my wife and I are looking forward to sharing the movies with our son when he gets older, and the two of us have also thanks to our son got a Star Wars revival in our life and are on our way of watching all the movies and series together when our son is asleep. But for now, that is something probably best not said out load.
