Play Fighting

I love to encourage my boys imagination and I realized very early that they were born with this natural inclination towards swords and guns and fighting bad guys.

Having observed many other mothers go through this same struggle with their boys I decided to follow in the steps of a dear friend and encourage the playful imagination of my young boys but encourage them to be chivalrous. They are not allowed to play fight against me but are instead encouraged to protect me from the dragons, monsters and bad guys. Thus far they have done a marvelous job as I have yet to have any scarring effects from the adventurous I have been through at the hands of the enemy.
They have slayed dragons, dinosaurs, monsters, alligators, bears, cows, butterflies, trolls and generic 'bad guys'.

They are still young enough to not quite get sword fighting against each other - they would much rather fight together against an imaginary enemy than fight against each other. But I know the day is coming and in preparation for that day I have armed them with the best weapons - felt swords. Or daggers. But we call them swords. A sword that makes them feel like valiant warriors without any risk of injury.

These are so simple to make - I cut out a very rough shape in the felt and then sewed it together, stuffed it and they were ready for battle! I used some extra felt to color code their swords and I made matching arm bands that they can use to hold their swords.
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And from what I have observed the swords are useful for other business too.