Today we were asked to attend Andre's (pretend) 8th birthday party, as our 8 year old selves. We were asked to wear fancy dress- either a Marvel Superhero or a Disney character. We were also expected to bring him a present and to provide party food, for the food table.
As research, I observed the behaviour of my 4 year old cousin. Although she is much younger than 8, she is quite intelligent and mature for her age. It gave me a better sense of the difference between a child and adults imagination. I watched youtube videos to get to grips with the behaviour of an 8 years old, but found that some were a lot more mature than others. It depended on the individual, as to how mature they were. Here are some of those videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmo4Ksg2yJk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHrTnp4rUQI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K53voRNMT1U
I also spent a lot of time remembering the way in which I behaved as an 8 year old and asked my family members how I behaved. In addition, I practised staying in character, by spending a few hours at a time as 'an 8 year old' prior to the day of the party.
I dressed up as Jessie, The Cowgirl from Toy Story 2&3. I though that this was an appropriate fancy dress costume, because I was a tomboy when I was 8, like Jessie. I would never have been caught in a Disney Princess Costume. I bought Andre a cuddly horse toy, (to go with my Cowgirl outfit) which sang a song. I also bought him a Hot Wheels toy car and I wrote him a card, which read "to Ondray", because I was terrible at spelling at that age. I wrote it with my left hand to make the writing look messy because I had awful, huge handwriting. I bought jammy dodgers for the party, because I used to love them and always bought either jammy dodgers or crisp to children's parties.
The party began as we all entered The Black Box. We played Musical Chairs, Musical Statues, Pass The Parcel and we danced a lot. We also had party food, in which I filled up my plate with crisps and then returned for seconds as I was very greedy at that age. I remained in character throughout the party. I found it difficult to play the correct age, but at that age I was very childish, spoke with a very babyish voice, was one of the least intelligent in my class and was extremely hyperactive. I jumped around a lot and hardly sat still during the party, to show that I was hyperactive. I said "please" and "thank you" to show that I was polite and I kept up my terrible habit of chewing things, which I had at that age.
Recorded Responses-
As an 8 year old:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKyr4wckbZI
As an adult:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSDa0CbqGNs
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