What I have discovered is that to boost any child’s imagination, we as parents need to provide opportunities and the supplies. There are many ways to do this.
As a family, we decided to only have one television, which we placed upstairs in our family room. Just those few stairs have discouraged our children from watching a movie. We have found that by limiting the amount of TV and video time and making those privileges have forced us to think outside the box. Since our children want to be busy and often claim to be bored, we have created “stations” or areas that have designated activities.
Some of the stations, we have placed in common areas, others in a specific child’s room. We did this to foster relationships and encourage respect for space and each other’s things. For example, puzzles are in my son’s room and if someone wants to do puzzles they must ask first. Crafts our in our oldest child’s room. She needs to be asked and also needs to participate with him as she shares a room with a baby and needs to be responsible for making sure the little pieces are picked up.
Here are some suggestions for creating “stations” or areas to foster imaginative play and creativity:
* Provide an area with journals, paper, pens, crayons for younger children to write stories, letters, etc.
* Have a bucket of dress-ups in all sizes (shopping after Halloween for 90% off costumes was our way of providing a variety of sizes and costumes and props.) Encourage children, friends, etc. to create short plays to perform later.
* Put all puzzles together, if you have a craft table perhaps have one set up and going. Have different levels of puzzles for different ages and levels of interest to keep kids busy.
* Offer craft buckets. Make lists of holidays for children to make cards, have white or brown craft paper rolls for children to create their own personalized wrapping paper for future gifts, scrapbooking materials, etc. (You can often find discount crafts after holidays. By picking up some to have on hand, it will save you from running out.)
* Book corners with bookshelves and comfy seats to encourage reading. Make sure you ask your child about what they are reading as it is good for their retention of the story, but also for maintaining an interest with your child.
*A place where all games are local and easily accessed. We like to have games that can be played by one or many. Some family favorites include Yahtzee, Boggle, Monopoly Jr., What’s in Ned’s Head, Charades, Apples to Apples and Would you Rather.
* Outside stations where sports equipment are housed together, such as balls, gloves, chalk for outdoor art, bubbles, kites, etc. Don’t think a tween is too old, these activities can be stress relievers, even for adults.
These are just a few suggestions, what other ideas do you have or use in creating imagination creation stations?
This past week, Mini’s class took part in a musical. It wasn’t the first time Mini has been in a school program that involved singing or dancing or what-have-you, but it was the first time she’s had real dialogue to remember and perform in front of a large audience. She did a great job, too, and I’m very proud of her. She remembered all her lines, spoke them strongly and with confidence and stayed focused on the play. Many of the children were distracted by waving parents and talking to their friends.
Last week, I discussed entertaining children with arts and crafts. This week, we began a project which will be a several weekends long task.
Mini picked up a couple of crafts books from the library this weekend and she wanted to do the most complicated (and expensive to prepare) activities in the books this past weekend. I convinced her that we should wait until this weekend, so that we could get stuff (sand, rocks, fake plants and little animals) to make a diorama.
