I am amazed at what children are capable of when children play.
The past couple of weeks have found the boys devoting many hours and burgeoning muscles to, what they are calling, their bomb shelter. Schemed up and labored over entirely alone.
Tucked in a little tree line on our property – in other words, hidden from view – is their hideout.
Two large pits were dug by each of them, then connected by a tunnel. They’ve been in a continual state of development. Currently scrap wood serves as a cover and a solid walking surface over the fort. 
They take a handkerchief bundle of “wild man snacks” out with them each afternoon. They work and they munch with their dirt crusted fingers. And at night they fall solidly to sleep, much needed rest for their work weary bodies. 
I have been thinking a lot about their play, and how hours and hours of play has resulted in the imagination and skills to invest in this fort now. And when I saw the following quote it resonated deeply with me – let the children play!
“You fail to perceive that it is a greater waste of time to use it ill than to do nothing, and that a child ill taught is further from virtue than a child who has learnt nothing at all. You are afraid to see him spending his early years doing nothing. What! is it nothing to be happy, nothing to run and jump all day? He will never be so busy again all his life long.” -Jean-Jacques Rousseau
