Monster High: Not Just for Dolls!

 

 

 

An interest in Monster High has been being taken to some wonderful extreme measures, thanks to the involvement of our adult daughter ( who is 26) and her wonderful connection to her younger sis! When she visits they of course will play hours with monster high dolls together, their laughter bursting through the house into the wee hours of the night. Unfortunately she can not visit all that much because she lives 600 miles away from us. However their Monster High play does not end there and has actually started a whole English cross curriculum model that is inspiring as much as entertaining to a young 12 year old girl.

They started a Face Book account where they write back and forth in their Characters names as if they were the Monster High characters themselves. This helps of course with spelling, reading and keyboarding with an amazing amount of imagination going into it

They write letters by hand to each other to,  on a really regular weekly basis. This of course helps with penmanship, spelling and reading as well. Our daughter Corin is so delighted when letters come in  the mail written from a Monster High character of course. They talk about Monster High news of other characters, festivals, and all sorts of things pertaining to the life of Monster High and ghouls. The photos on this post are decorations for a Creepy Crawly Festival coming up.

Our last library trip taken the other day had Corin discovering Monster High books, she is reading right now. She loves to have me sit next to her in case she comes across words she struggles with. I enjoy this time with her as it gives us some girl time together. It also allows me to see how far she has come in what has been a very difficult journey for her. For those who have not followed here for long, she has struggled with Dyslexia which has made spelling and reading a very difficult road for her in deed. Even in speech it is evident at times when she mixes up sentences or says a word completely wrong making it difficult to understand her at times. Yet it seems finally at age 12 these struggles are finally starting to connect for her and these activities are finally coming together in easier terms.

Finding activities she becomes obsessed in, have been key factors in her growing in leaps and bounds with her reading and spelling. Last year was anime and this year Monster High and it has skyrocketed her learning in these areas. This has been an amazing journey to watch her grow in and her confidence has been growing too which has been awesome watching bloom in her. All the activities I have done in the past with her did nothing compared to her obsessions  of high interests.

This Monster High Role playing back and forth has been an incredible base in building learning blocks ( although we did have to purchase the actual dolls of course! LOL) and a deep connection with her sister as well. They keep taking it to a new level where other activities get added into it as well. Sometimes late in the evening, Corin will call her sister on the phone and run off into her room with her laughter bursting through the house late into the night while they act it all out on the phone as if her sis was here spending the night.

Corin would say that this is not school as school is not suppose to be fun....... while it may not be school, she is certainly learning by playing. This is a beautiful thing to watch.