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The one thing that is obvious to
every pre-school teacher is how much young children love imaginative
games. When I purchase a new game for my class, some kids get
excited. If I buy a new doctor's kit or a fireman costume, well,
the whole class lines up for a turn.
Ten Ways to Encourage
Your Young Child's Imagination
By Esther Boylan Wolfson
Director, Early Childhood Development Center
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- Establish a dress-up
corner in your home where you put old clothing and personal
accessories (pocketbooks, hats, costume jewelry, Halloween
costumes, etc.)
- Keep crayons, watercolors,
clay, construction paper and glue in an accessible place.
- Put on a play with
your child based on a story she knows or, even better,
based on a story that the child makes up herself. You
can relate this to a holiday, wedding or other event.
- Provide blankets
and sheets for building tents and other imaginative games.
- Encourage your child
to build with construction toys and other toys, such as
Playmobile, that give your child props to create their
own world.
- Make up songs and
stories together. Take turns. You say one line or sentence
and she says the next.
- Spend as much time
as possible in nature, preferably in wild places.
- If your child wants
you to, get involved in his fantasy. Get on that imaginary
boat, be a second-in-command on that spaceship, be the
Daddy in the pretend family. Be sure to let your child
take the lead.
- In the toy corner,
have fabric, seashells, stones, sticks, boards, pine cones,
string, rope and other open-ended materials.
- If you see your
child daydreaming, don't interrupt.
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Why do young children love imaginative
play?
In my years of experience as a pre-school
teacher and a mother, it has become clear to me that young children
love imaginative play because they can be whatever they want to
be. The life of a young child is extremely limited and structured.
No three-year-old can go out for a walk by herself, choose her
own food, or buy her own clothes. A young child is totally dependent
on a parent or caretaker. True, he can express an opinion, but
the bottom line is, the parent decides.
Children use a different method to
see new places and experience new things --they use their imagination.
While a four-year-old named Tracy might only be allowed to walk
from home to pre-school and back home again, "Queen Tracy"
rules a kingdom, lives in a big castle and rides her horse whenever
she wants. The life of three-year-old Michael might be boring,
but "Michael the fireman" is a hero.
Why Is Imagination Important?
The magic of early childhood is that
children can not only imagine new and interesting situations to
enhance their lives but they can also learn from these imagined
situations. By putting on a cook's hat and baking up a storm,
a child feels happier and more independent, and also thinks about
what it really means to be a cook. He reviews his experiences
with Mom or Dad in the kitchen and remembers what ingredients
his parent use. In deciding to put the pretend pot on the stove
or in the oven, he has the opportunity to expand his own world
while applying his observations.
As adults, we learn from the world
we live in and from our experiences; children do the same. But
children have an added talent that every parent should encourage.
Children learn not only from what they are, but also from what
they want to be.
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