Albert Einstein once said “Logic will get you from A to Z; imagination will get you everywhere.” He was right. A healthy imagination is a great thing. It sparks creativity, aids in problem solving and ideas. Many of us lose our sense of imagination as we get older, but our children are still growing & honing theirs. As parents there are many things that we can do to help our young ones develop this.
Role Playing: This is something that toddlers naturally do on their own. They love to mimic the actions of the ones around them. The first hint of this I saw with my daughter was with her pretend talking into a remote control. She would have full conversations about her day on her fake cell phone. She has since graduated to tea parties, baking Play-Doh cakes & teaching her stuff animals.
Enjoy the Abstract: Do you remember being younger and laying on the ground and finding images in the clouds? It is amazing what your child can see. I did an experiment with my daughter a while back, where I made about a dozen inkblot pictures and asked her what she saw. The results were interesting.
Read, read, read: I don’t know about you, but when I am reading a book, I always play it out in my mind. How many times have you saw a movie that was adapted from a book & the characters were not how you pictured them. Books expand your creative mind. Be theatrical when reading to your child. Invite them to be too. How fun would it be to act out “Pete’s A Pizza” with your child?
Playing dress up: Whether you have a little boy who likes to dress in a cowboy hat and vest or a little girl who likes to don a tiara and magic wand, playing dress up is a great way for your children to feed their worlds of make believe. Costumes inspire new characters to be born and formed & it is fun for mommy and daddy to play along too.
Story telling: This is the most fun. Get your child to tell you a story. Many times my daughter will start with a one simple sentence. “I went down stairs to get a birthday cake for mama dinosaur. ” This can spark a fun story telling experience with your child. “Really, who came to the birthday party?” “What color was mama dinosaur’s cake?” My daughter has such an active imagination. She comes up with the most creative and colorful stories. I started writing them down. In fact, I took one of her stories and made it into a book. I am currently illustrating it.
Get artistic: Transferring the beautiful images in your mind on to a piece of paper is a wonderful way to open up your imagination. Mai’s drawings don’t quite look like anything yet to us, but she knows exactly what she is drawing. “Mama look! The mermaid is in the pond.” Yes it is!
Pretend: This can often go hand in hand with dress up or role playing. Our daughter likes to pretend that she is various animals. Her favorite is a kitten. She will often ask me to play along. I am usually mama kitten. Tonight, I had to be mama kangaroo & she was my Joey. We bounced around the living room with her pretending to be in my pouch.
What sort of activities do your children do to expand their imaginations? Please share any fun or interesting stories about your smart and imaginative children.
14 comments
Aww, look how cute Mai is and will say my girls do all of the above and then some. So, I think our girls would get along famously 🙂
She would love your girls for sure. She has always loved the older girls.
We absolutely encourage imagination and creativity! I love role-playing with my daughter. Tea parties, baby doll dances, “fixing” things, doctor! It’s all so much fun to watch her learn!
It is great. My daughter loves all those things too and now she plays teacher to her stuffed animals.
omg the inner Jackie pic was priceless!!!!!
Thank you. It is one of my favorites.
Reblogged this on Lorraine Wilkie and commented:
Great article if you have little ones or grandchildren. Take a look:
Thank you for the reblog Lorraine.
It’s so exciting to watch my son’s imagination grow as he develops. He is constantly telling himself stories and pretending. Childhood is such a magical time. I definitely agree that it’s important to encourage imaginative play. Thanks for writing another inspiring post!
Thank you. It truly is a magical time. I fascinated by my daughter’s mind as you are with your son. Enjoy every second mama, as I am sure that you do.
Imaginative Play is hard for my son. Thank you for reminding me of some ideas to try with him.
You are welcome. I hope some of them inspire him.
All such great ideas!! My daughter wants to do nothing else but play pretend all day long. She cannot go through a meal without the food suddenly becoming a mommy, daddy, brother, and sister. 🙂 She will love all these new ideas!
That is funny. My daughter does this too. Everything is Mama, Dada, Nanna and then she names Aunts and Uncles too. I think it is adorable.