The Importance of Imagination In Parenting

Children are naturally master of imagination! And their imagination is often wild and active!But as adults, we parents very often seem to have forgotten that we were once like them and that we are an imaginative lot...

Someone just related this story to me... A mother of a 2 year old saw how much her two year old loved those motorized big sized toy car.. so she spent $120 and bought one for her child on her birthday... her daughter was so excited and played with it intensively for about 2 weeks and then forgot about it...

About a few weeks later, they purchased a new TV and because they had no use for the box, they chucked it one side only to find that their daughter started to use it as a toy. This time round, she also played with the box for around 3 weeks and the mother exclaimed, "If I had known that the box is more fascinating for her.. I wouldn't have spent that much money on that toy car and would have just given her a box which was FREE!"I related this story to my mum who is a childcare teacher for 16 years and she said this is probably due to the fact taht children have very active imaginations.. if you give them a toy that is too life-like, they do not really get to make use of their imagination... but something like a box, with a little help from your imagination could transform into so many different things that would give you so many different expereinces and adventures...

So when my son requests for some sort of toy from me, I sometimes try to use my imagination and come up with creative ways to to create that toy. A handcuff could be two paper bag handles linked by a few rubber bands.. or two paper rings I made by folding and sticking two ends of the paper together before I linked them with a ribbon...Following our lead, my son starts to get creative and makes his own handcuffs using lego blocks and cardboard boxes...

Well, a bigger box like a printer box can become a boat, or a taxi, or a car... turned upside down it can become a house.. or a hotel... and sometimes a table and a chair....His cries for a POLICE CAR that can be driven around ended up with someone giving him a second hand toy car.. he actually pasted some masking take... put the words POLICE on it and drew the Singapore Police Force logo on it and tadah, it becomes a police car.. siren included (which was made from some rolled up paper into a cylinder shape and hoisted on the car using masking tape)...

So next time your child cries out for a new toy, why not try making one with him ;) It will bring you and your child lots of joy, lots of bonding time and SAVE YOU LOTS OF MONEY :)

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