Willy Wonka and the Haunted Chocolate Factory

Two months ago, Jonah started becoming quite fascinated by "spooky" things. It was a word that popped up frequently in the Halloween books we had borrowed from the library. He loved to read the spooky Halloween books and would recite lines from them with the same inflection and intonation I would use when reading. It was one of those cute things that I told myself I'd record next time.. until there wasn't a next time! He liked to watch the spooky Halloween show (The Nightmare before Christmas - a scary show for a two year old, but he loves it!) and loved to put his blanket over his head and say that he was a scary ghostie (and oh, how I love how he would say 'ghostie' instead of just 'ghost').

Skyler is currently obsessed with Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.  Last month, his kindergarten class took their first field trip to see a play based on the book. Skyler's synopsis of the field trip was the play was long and the bus ride was bumpy. I told him that we had the movie and put it on for him. He lasted only a few minutes (not a surprise, he's not one to sit in front of the TV for more than 20 minutes or so). Another day he wanted to try again and I suggested that I skip ahead to the part where everyone is in the factory. He loved that! So for several weeks we'd watch just the second half at least once a day. The kids would both dance around and sing the Oompa Loompa songs. We got the book from the library and have been reading chapters each night. Then Skyler decided he wanted to put on his own play. Apparently the audience could chose to watch the live version in the living room or the 'taped' version in the family room. For the taped version, he set up a camera and then a long string of blankets that led from the camera to the TV - those were the cords. On Wednesday night, he performed his one man (sometimes two when Jonah would cooperate) version of Willy Wonka. On Thursday night there was a repeat performance, but this time Jonah didn't want to be Charlie or Grandpa Joe, he wanted to be a ghostie. So he put his blanket over his head and wandered around the 'stage' saying "I'm a scary ghostie!"  I hear there might be another performance tonight. :)