Spies, Detectives, and Agents of Every Kind

Mysteries and secret missions abound at my house these days. My children are in the midst of mystery-mania. It always amazes me that despite the difference in my children's ages, they still seem to follow each other's interests. My seventh grader is enjoying reading Sherlock Holmes. This was a favorite of mine at about that age. My eight year old son is also into the Baker St. action, he loves the Jim Weiss recording of "Sherlock Holmes for Children" stories. Nancy Drew has also enjoyed a resurgence. The computer mystery games are a huge favorite. The children love to sit and do these together. The puzzles and clues are quite challenging - lots of educational value here. They have also checked out Nancy Drew mysteries for Addie to read to Whit. Even the Nancy Drew movie is a big hit with both of them. My older loves the fashion in the movie and has styled her own bag of tricks after Nancy's. My son loves the action!
The playmobile spy sets have also been big this year. Whit (my son) received these for his birthday and has really enjoyed the remote control car with spy camera. I must admit, it is cool.
Something that gets a lot of play time is Whit's spy gear. He has put together an outfit for dress up play and has gathered lots of gadgets to put in his spy bag (and old school type bag of mine). Invisible ink, black jacket and shades, a little theme music from the ipod (007 and Mission Impossible theme songs), and regular viewings of the Pink Panther cartoons seem to round out this spectrum of spy-dom. I love the smorgasbord - from Scotland Yard to cartoon antics, sleuthing and spying is super.