“A child of five would understand this. Send someone to fetch a child of five.” – Groucho Marx

Those of us who have grown past playing pretend can relearn lessons from the dollhouse. If you are fortunate enough to have never forgotten how to play pretend, and find that the list below is incomplete, please let me know. I will look forward to hearing from you.

If you are a teacher interested in using the concept of the dollhouse to teach everything from social studies to science, click on the following: http://www.oswego.edu/academics/colleges_and_departments/education/jal/vol2no1/rule1.pdf

Lesson #1: The spoiling of artificial food makes a real mess.

Evidence from The Tale of Two Bad Mice by Beatrix Potter:

I don’t know whether my sister remembers this, but I have a memory of being at a home show with our parents many years ago. Janice and I opened up a refrigerator in one of the show rooms and discovered, to our delight, artificial food. The first one might have been a cake, or it might have been a pot roast, but whatever, it set off a hunt for more and more artificial food. I think I actually learned the word ‘artificial’ that day. We tore around the place, opening freezers and refrigerators until we had dishonored the family name. I remember thinking real food could never look that good.

Hunca Munca and Tom Thumb, the two bad mice in the classic Beatrix Potter tale, had the same reaction when the real owners of a dollhouse, Lucinda and Jane, went out for a stroll, leaving their wonderfully tidy, tiny home undefended. The two mice were nosy, and they went inside. The table was laid with a tiny ham, a tiny fish and other dainties. The mice couldn’t believe their good luck until, after much trouble, they discover they have been duped – the food isn’t real. They proceed to smash it up as much as possible, and then go on to loot and pillage at will.

Lesson #2: There is such a thing as a haunted dollhouse.

Evidence from The Dollhouse Murders by Betty Ren Wright:

I haven’t read this book; I have only read about it, but it’s now on my soon-to-read list.

A girl’s great-grandparents were murdered and a haunted dollhouse in her aunt’s attic holds the clues to the mystery. Yikes. Count me in.

Lesson #3: A dollhouse of ill repute is not the same as a house of ill repute.

Evidence from Through the Dolls’ House Door by Jane Gardam:

This is a story of a long neglected dollhouse and set of dolls who while away the years in a shed telling tales of the glory days. They are eventually lifted up out of their shameful state, cleaned up and restored.

Lesson #4: The concept of recycling might have begun with the dollhouse.

Evidence from our own experience of turning empty spools of thread into end tables, cereal boxes into temporary walls, candy wrappers into fireplace flames, handkerchiefs into curtains . . .

Megan Gets a Dollhouse by Nancy McArthur is an early reader that tells the story of a girl who tires of not having a dollhouse of her own and finally makes one from a box and objects she finds around her home.

Lesson #5: The scale of a house is inversely proportional to the pleasure it brings; hence, a dollhouse brings more pleasure than any normal sized house.

The big business of miniatures is evidence enough for me. The Little Dollhouse Company (google it – I dare you) is a Toronto, Ontario based business specializing in (hold your breath): dollhouses and dollhouse kits; dollhouse furniture; dolls, people and families; dollhouse accessories; dollhouse animals; dollhouse building supplies; lighting, wiring kits, supplies; wallpaper, floors, crowns etc.; dollhouse furniture kits . . . and, their 3000 square foot shop is open daily.

Lesson #6: A dollhouse is not just a house for dolls.

Just as a house can transcend the bricks and mortar to become a true home, a dollhouse can transcend its structural framework to become a symbolic container of the hopes, fears and dreams of a child.