Off-hours though, I don't care. I don't think that because my preschool children shoot their lego guns at each other they will grow up and shoot people for real. Because we have the daycare rule though, my kids don't really play guns anyways, except for squirt guns.
Recently some of the kids wanted to have a water gun day where they could bring their squirt guns from home if they had them and run around the backyard squirting each other. The rare squirt-gun days are the only times I allow them to play shooting games during daycare hours.
This past Saturday my kids were outside squirting each other with their squirt guns (let me just say... I can't wait until they can all re-fill their own squirt guns!) and having a great time. Sweet Pea and Babydoll were both still in their pajamas, and Little Man? Well.... this is what he was wearing -
Most kids are still drawn to playing good-guy/bad-guy games though and want to use a weapon of some sort. Since guns aren't allowed, they would be happy to duel each other with swords - except with toy swords in the hands of determined and uncoordinated preschoolers, someone is most definitely going to get hurt! Need to stay away from close-range combat!
Harry Potter has provided a helpful alternative - magic wands! They have plenty of fun shooting spells at each other! Just the other day we had a boisterous game of magic-fight going. We were mostly shooting sleeping spells and wake-up spells at each other and trying to get eachother's wands, it was fun for everyone, and not one imaginary bullet was fired off.
This game was made all the more fun by the fact that Little Man isn't shy about dressing up in his sisters' accessories. For all he knows it's completely appropriate attire for battle!
