Come As A Word
Come as a word!? Because having World Book Day is not enough, schools occasionally love to throw a spanner in the works just a few weeks before the big day. If you know me and my children you will be aware that in the passion of it all we are usually already planned and full of World Book Day ideas thank you very much. Love any excuse to dress up here.. and a book!
When that familiar ping of the school app sounded and in fact stated that the children were ‘invited’ to come as a word for World Book Day this year, the eye roll was involuntary.
So. We improvised.
Ikigai
My ballet mad youngest daughter, armed with a new birthday gift of a pancake tutu, had wanted to be a ballerina. Which was vetoed thanks to our traditionalist stickler tendencies and ‘a ballerina’ is not a character in my book (pun absolutely intended). However when this change of plan came we actually could made it work.
And the plus side? It’s actually a book too!
Ikigai, if you’re not familiar, is a book based around the Japanese word, and concept, ikigai (ee-key-guy) essentially meaning having a passion, a reason for being, to live and to get out of bed in the morning. Of which currently, ballet definitely is for her.
One ballet uniform and an A4 print out later and we were good to go.
So there you have it, my passionate little ballerina and her ikigai for World Book Day.
What Do We Make Of World Book Day Variations?
The come as a word concept is, I guess, not so bad after all because we all have a lot on our plates and you can make it work and go with either ends of the scale. Whether you are a throw it together the night before with what you can find World Book Day-er. Or a plan for weeks with research and hand sew a crown-er. Having children and their opinions, is always a good idea.
Alternatives we went through were words like brave, magical, mythical and kind which we would bring back to the rainbow series of books. You of course don’t have to relate it to a book at all and essentially, anything is a word!
Maybe even their name!?
The traditional dress up costume for World Book Day will always have my heart and is something my children have really adored over the years. It has brought us so many lovely memories and conversations around books and characters which, let’s face it, is the whole point. Isn’t it?
I understand the need or want for variations for lots of reasons but I have to admit to being a little sad when armed with a comfy pj day as opposed to the bright spark of excitement and enthusiasm of a costume in the playground before 9am and being introduced to books you might never have heard of. But hey, that might just be us.
Good luck if your school has thrown up a new concept this year. Let me know what you do. If however you find yourself with the more old skool dress up type, I have quite a few World Book Day idea blog posts to have you covered!
Happy World Book Day-ing whatever it looks like for you.
