Shadow Play: Day 2, Where does your shadow go when you are sleeping?

In our discussions and studies of shadows, we also watched Peter Pan (a couple bazillion times) and Disney Junior’s new special Peter Pan Returns on Jake and the Neverland Pirates.

 With stolen/missing shadows being an important part of each movie, it made for some great discussion about shadows.  Like, “Where does your shadow go when you go to sleep?”  It ended up being such a wonderful question to ask children, that I asked some friends and fellow mom bloggers to ask THEIR kids.  Here are the responses …

  • “It just stays really, really close to you.” Henry, turns 6 on March 1st
  • “I don’t want to go to sleep.” -Honor, age 2 1/2 … yup, that’s my girl!
  • “It goes to the shadow world.” – Sloan, age 7
  • “They stay in the dark.” -Evelyn, age 2 1/2
  • “DisneyWorld.”  – Samantha, age 3 1/2
  • “It goes on the wall because the light coming from the door into my dark room.” – Noah, (How Bourgeois.), age 7
  • “On the wall.”  – Ella, (from CraftyDrMom), almost 5
  • Benjamin (age 2) thought for a second, then said, “Here I’ll show you … Here on my bed, see?” [Jennifer/mom note:  sure enough there was his shadow on his headboard], (from CraftyDrMom)
  • “I don’t know!  Probably outside.  Can you Google it for me?” – Bubble (from A Little Learning for Two), age 4
  • “Well … on a train.” – Squeak (from A Little Learning for Two), age 2
  • “It sleeps, sleeps with me.” -age 3
  • “It goes downstairs.” – Cakie (from The Imagination Tree), age 3
  • “It goes away.” -Henry (from Hands On: as we grow), age 3
  • “You can’t have shadows when there is no light.” -Zak (from Science Sparks), age 4
  • “We don’t have a shadow at night, it’s dark.” – Jimmy (from Kids*Stuff*World), age 6
  • “Our shadows sleep under our beds at night.” – Caroline (from  Kids*Stuff*World), age 4
  • “It goes on the bottom of the bed.” – Birdy, (from Sense of Wonder), age 4
  • “It goes on the wall.” – T’ien, (from Epiphany Community School), age 6
  • “It goes underneath.” – W, ((from Epiphany Community School)
  • The kids from Epiphany Community School, then concluded that “their shadows go with them in their dreams.”
  • “On the wall.” – Charlotte, (from Kitchen Counter Chronicles), age 6
  • “I don’t know because I’m asleep … maybe on the wall?” (from Kitchen Counter Chronicles), age 8
    “It goes to sleep too.” – Putti, (from Putti Prapancha), age 4
  • “To Disneyland.” – Ry, (from Time for Play), age 3
  • “Into my dream.” -Tay, (from Time for Play), age 5
  • “I know where they go … Oh wait, I don’t.  Where do they go mummy?”  – L (from Nurturestore), age 5
  • “As soon as the lights go off they got to a disco and do dancing.  They have a mirror ball. [Cathy/Mom’s note: She meant one of those disco light things, but the idea of having a ball in the mirrors seems right too!)  -B (from Nurturestore), age 9
  • “On the couch and closes its eyes.” – LeLe, (from Mama Mia’s Heart 2 Heart), age 3
  • Conversation between James (age 6) and Leland (age 4) from Creative with Kids … James: It stays attached to you but kind of goes under you so you can’t see it because it’s already dark.  Leland:  No.  I think it goes on the wall.   Like next to you on the wall.  James:  So, what’s the right answer?
  • “It doesn’t go away.  It’s still there.”  – Lizzie, (from My Creative Family), age 4, who has a night light!
  • “In the sky, Mom, in the sky!” – Aiden, (from Playaway), age 5
  • Jacob, (from Rainy Day Mum), age 2 1/2, wasn’t sure … but spent 10 minutes that night looking for it.  In the morning he woke up and there was still no shadow.  But when he walked into his parents’ room, where the light was on, his shadow was on the landing.  Once he got into the room, in a spot where there was no light, his shadow was gone.  So, Jacob decided that when he’s asleep that the shadow goes and read a book on the landing.
  • “It disappears!  It goes into a burrow!”  – (from Carrots are Orange) age 2 1/2, [Marnie/mom’s note:  I guess those Groundhog Day books paid off, sort of!]
  • “On the wall.” – Elly, (from The Educators Spin on It), age 5
  • “On your pillow.” – Nicholas, (from The Educators Spin on It), age 2
  • “It goes in bed with me.  Like this. (demonstrates.)”  (from The Iowa Farmer’s Wife), age 2 1/2
  • “It switches places with the light.”  – Nate, (from Kindergarten for Teachers and Parents), age 7
  • “I don’t know.”  – Sammy, (from  Kindergarten for Teachers and Parents), age 3
  • “It disappears because there is no light.”  (from Inspiration Surrounds, Creativity Abounds), age 5
  • “It knocks on your door and says, ‘Are you sleeping?'” , (from Inspiration Surrounds, Creativity Abounds), age 3
  • “It stays on the wall.” – Pari, (from Mommy Labs), age 6
  • Red Ted‘s mom asked him, and he grinned and said, “don’t know.”  His playdate (age 4) laughed and said, “Downstairs.”  Then Red Ted (age 4) said his, “goes in the loft.”  And, apparently, there was A LOT of giggling!
  • “They just disappear and reappear when it is light in the morning.” – JDaniel, (from JDaniel’s Mom), age 4
  • “It sleeps with me.” says, 6 year old Diva, and 4 year old Diva says, “It goes inside your body.” (from Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas)
  • “My shadow goes outside to wait for me to wake up.” – Butterfly, (from Rockabye Butterfly), age 4
  • “It goes to Heaven and comes back in the morning.”  – Amanda, (from Kids Creative Chaos), age 5
  • “Why are you asking me that?  It goes to sleep when I am asleep.” – Jake, (from Kids Creative Chaos), age 7
  • “It goes to the moon and plays there with the sun and the stars.  Then it comes back down again to stay close with me.”  – Chanel, (from Angelique Felix), age 6

I would LOVE LOVE LOVE it if you could ask your kids their ideas on where shadows go when they sleep.  And, PLEASE, share their answers here in a comment.  Come back tomorrow for some MORE shadow play!

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Laura Hutchison

Laura Hutchison (aka PlayDrMom) is a chubby kid turned competitive figure skater tween turned high school pom pon girl turned MSU Spartan turned grad student turned Mrs. HutcH turned Dr. turned Mom. She adores living in the Mitten, is addicted to Diet Coke, and firmly believes that ice cream is a main food group.

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Comments
  1. MiaB

    This is great!! Loved re-reading everyone’s comments 🙂 Kids are too fun. Sharing this on FB 🙂

    ~MiaB
    http://www.mamamiasheart2heart.com

  2. Cathy

    I asked my 3 year old daughter, who is obsessed with Peter Pan. She answered, “It flies everywhere!” 🙂

  3. amber

    This is such a fun post. My guy days don’t know and puts up his hands.

  4. Laura

    Thanks, MiaB, so much for participating and your kind comment!!!

  5. Laura

    Wonderful! Thanks for commenting, Cathy!

  6. Laura

    Amber, I love it! Thanks for commenting!

  7. Kids Creative Chaos

    This is so much fun! I am sharing too 🙂

  8. Rockabye Butterfly

    Awesome post!!! absolutely love love this idea, the question and getting kids involved!

  9. Laura

    Thanks, Rockabye Butterfly … for stopping by … and the thoughtful comment!

  10. The Iowa Farmer's Wife

    Love this post and all the awesome answers! Thanks for including our answer!

  11. Tara

    “He sleeps.” Gabriella, 4
    “He flies.” Dominic, 2 😉

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