Increasing Imagination
Increasing imagination in a child is one of the most important things a parent can ever do. A child with an active imagination will have a better vocabulary, greater problem solving skills and more emotional control as adult. According to a recent article in the Los Angeles Times (Education Pendulums: Thinkers or Test Takers) schools in the United States now place a greater emphasize on standardized tests and curriculum thanks to the No Child Left Behind Act passed in 2001. Teachers have little time to foster imagination instead they spent most of their time working on core curriculum.
Dreaming Is
Increasing Imagination
Playing is increasing imagination!
“You see things; and you say Why? But I dream things that never were; and I say Why not?”
- George Bernard Shaw
Increasing Imagination Begins At Home
Imagination and creativity are something that parents can easily work on with children. Even if you have several children you can work towards making their lives richer through creativity. Here are some easy things parents can do to help.
Dinosaurs are creative with sunglasses!
1. Think outside the box – When I get my three-year-old son up in the morning one of the first questions I ask is, “What do you want to do today?” Some morning he will answer, “I don’t know?” Knowing that I want to continue working on increasing imagination I might say, “How about we put on our wings today and fly around the house until we find the secret cave where Aladdin keeps his treasures?”
2. Story time is fun time – Story time has become a ritual in my house. The hardest part about reading stories for me is sticking to the book. I will be reading my son a story and ad-lib different things as I am reading. I will ask questions like, “What do you think is going to happen?” or “Tell me what you would do?”
3. Think differently – As adults we have to stop thinking that imagination is only used for music or arts. We use imagination everyday of our lives. A good example of this is when we lose an item, such as lost car keys (I recently did this….see Attitude Adjustment Needed) I started asking myself could my son have moved them? Could I have dropped them outside? Did I place them in the laundry basket by mistake?
4. Don’t give them everything – We always want our children to have the best but sometimes the act of not having something helps a child work on increasing imagination. Upon occasion, I will tell my son I can’t find something or we don’t have it to see what he will do. I am always amazed at the solutions he will give me. Recently he wanted a toy airplane of his and I told him I couldn’t find it. He finally gave up looking for it and built his own plane out of MegaBlocks.
5. Explore everything - Increasing imagination of a child can happen anywhere, including outdoors. On more than one occasion I have buried pennies and nickles in the backyard. When we get near the buried coins I will say (in my best pirate voice), “Do you think pirates used to live here?” Xan’s eyes get real big with excitement and he will answer, “YEAH!!! Pirates live here! They hide stuff! They hide treasure!” I will then start asking him question about what does he think we need to do to find the treasure? Where could it be buried? We then will go on a pirate adventure.
6. Singing imagination - Now that my son is old enough to talk he has opinion’s on everything and music is no different. I like to sing to my son but I won’t just sing traditional songs. I have songs for getting up, going to sleep, doing dishes, folding clothes etc. I make up the words as I go along. He now is to the point he will sing me songs that are totally made up just to show me he can.
Explore
with
confidence
Do you see the monster that wouldn’t let him eat?
If you are a parent you have to become flexible enough to not always be an adult. It’s okay to get dirty, explore and create things. The more you work on increasing imagination with a child the more likely a child’s boredom will be a thing of the past and they will explore the world with confidence.
“Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.”
- Albert Einstein
Be sure to check out Andi-Roo at TheWorld4Realz who is writing about a month of controversy in the A to Z +1 August blogging challenge with me! I was a bit late posting but I have a 3-year-old and fatherhood comes first! Today is the letter “I” for Increasing Imagination.
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I tend to forget whenI read your posts what an excellent grounding you have in Social work but I’m soon reminded when I see the sensible yet vitally important things you write about. I think an imagination is the greatest gift you can give a child after love not just because it does help their intelligence and reasoning skills but because it gives them such pleasure. How many children today can say they’ve read a book? I wonder out of those how many actually picture the scene and move along the story in the scene.Those are the children whose leaps of imagination will one day cure cancer because they weren’t limited by mundane thinking.
One question I must ask though, did you find the keys and if so where? I wonder whether Xander gave you some buried Pirate treasure or whether they turned up in the fridge.
Thank you for very lovely comment on my Social Work background. I had to do so many practicums (that lovely free volunteer work) t get my degree that writing on here helps keep me grounded in my “native tongue!” I had an emphasize on children and families in my degree. Writing actually is easier on a blog than it is for actual Social Work.
I would write court reports that would be read by judge. I quickly discovered (thankfully not me my writing but a co-workers) that you never wanted to turn in a sloppy or misconstrued report the judge would literally tear you apart in court and could (and often would) demand to see your supervisor in court within a very short time period! They literally didn’t “play” for lack of a better term!
The reports I would write for the courts were about families and the family system. Literally, every intimate detail you can possibly think of plus 10 more pages. Most of the court reports I have written in the past were a minimum of 30 pages (full pages too!) If i was doing an emergency removal of a child I would have to have it completed before court closed that day (sometimes only leaving me a few hours to write the report) I find blogging less stressful and much more refreshing.
I can tell you that is why I write a variety of things (some serious, some fun!) I was to the point the overly serious was depressing so I have to write for myself now and that includes being fun. The one thing I am very serious about in my writing still is equality and the way you treat children. I have seen far to much in my life to not understand it.
Some of the things I have seen still cause me trouble sleeping to this day. I will fight for a person’s rights to the bitter end because of it. I am a strong advocate for father’s rights because I believe they are not taken as seriously as they should be. Especially considering all of the studies that show the importance of father’s!!!
As far as my keys are concerned….I wish I knew where they were!!! I do not have a clue still and am currently dismantling one room after the next in search.
Xander is one of today’s children’s that has a great appreciation for books and stories. In fact, somewhere in my old posts I have a few blogs about a few incidents. I have one story in particular I might try to work into the A to Z blog challenge if i can find a letter to place it in! It will show the respect he has learned for books after a few misdeeds. Literature of all types (even items I don’t consider to have merit) have value!! I would not ever want to see a return to book burnings like happened during WWII.
Sorry I rambled so much in the response but you have me discussing a subject I could go into great depth about.
Aaron
I can only imagine the pain of writing reports for court Aaron. I have Social Work background too in the dim and distant but in residential work. I have run a residential home for the mentally handicapped and worked with the elderly ( my main pleasure) as well as lectured for students on the subject. I’ve appeared at Coroners Courts and seen the turmoil caused by badly prepared reports.I’m glad you were dedicated to the cause of children and also to fathers since I feel that they are often badly overlooked in custody battles despite sometimes being the most dedicated parent.
But, back to Xander.I’m sure he must have been stimulated by the stories you read to him. It must be dun for him to draw you into his own. I used to read my daughter stories, it must have stimulate her imagination as she’s 34 now and still telling me tall stories.When I get grandchildren I won’t envy you as much since I’ll be able to repeat all my old moves plus new ones I’m learning from you.Then I get to give them back at the end of the day when they’ve tired me out.
Keep doing what you’re doing cos’ you’re doing a great job.
Number 6 is my favorite! Loved making up songs with my nephew when he was little! We’d make up songs about all sorts of things and its carried both of us forward… yes, I mean I do it even when kids aren’t around. Creativity shouldn’t ever stop!
I love making up songs with my son! Its actually part of favorite time of the day and i know someday I will miss it the most. I will look back and be lucky enough to say I actually got to live life as a musical for a short time ( a very rare and blessed thing)
Creativity is the mother of invention! I often wonder what the future holds since schools emphasize it less today then when we went to school.
Aaron
This is great. My son is just starting to develop an imagination and learn to pretend. He is narrating play with toys and pretending he is an animal. Its awesome to see!
-M
It a truly wonderful thing to watch! I have read books in the past about the way the imagination works but to actually see it come to life is totally different (even if he does now tell me the dog did it)
Aaron