I think that any of us who are interested in books for children are also interested in children having childhoods rich in imagination. NPR has an interesting piece on creative play for children and its importance in forming “executive function” such as self-regulation, cognitive flexibility and working memory.
The advice is common sense: children should be encouraged to play games where they dream, wish, pretend and invite. Free play should be an integral part of their lives. My youngest son has a way of pretending that he has done since he was tiny. He whooshes around running, talking to himself and making loud explosive noises every so often. He won’t tell any of us what he is doing, and we have learned to just enjoy his orbiting. I wouldn’t rob him of that time where he is obviously in another world all his own for anything. In fact, when teachers tell us that our sons are both daydreamers, I take it as a great compliment. Means that I did something right.
How about you? Any daydreaming children? Any who have such rich imaginations that they don’t need anyone else around to have fun? Tell us!
Waking Brain Cells 
I was glad to hear play’s importance recognized in that NPR piece, but the piece itself was mildly disturbing, with the kids having to describe how they were going to play before they did it–it seemed the antithesis, really, of imaginative play, which is free-flowing and often a bit anarchic.
Both my kids were/are big into imaginative play, both by themselves and with others. My son can draw himself into another world with pencil and paper, and be lost to us for hours.
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Yeah, our older daughter is very bright, but we sometimes laugh about her being a “space cadet”. She’s a real daydreamer in Grade 1 — we asked her what she does when she finishes her schoolwork early, and she describes these very complex scenes she imagines with aliens landing outside the classroom window or whatever.
She was interesting also in that she enjoyed the preparation and conceptualizing for imaginative play almost more than the play itself, constructing elaborate scenes, tickets, posters, signs and setups that dwarfed the actual playing in time and energy. It’s how she taught herself to write — she needed to build signs!
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oh my gosh! my daughter does this too. she says “I’m telling myself a story.” As she’s gotten older the pace has slowed a bit, but there is a constant muttered narrative going the whole time. I thought she was the only one.
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Our childhoods are so important! Did your parents do a good job in giving you lots of good family memories? Are you building memories for your children? I didn’t do too hot in this field. Read my lament at peoplepowergranny.blogspot.com and vote in my poll on what your favorite childhood memory is/was.
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I heard that NPR piece on the radio and I agree with what Libby said above. I was bothered that those little kids had to sit down with the teacher and write out a plan before they were aloud to play. It seems it would put quite a damper on many children’s creative play. As I listened to the piece I realized that for some kids who have been over exposed to TV and video or over-regulated in their behavior, perhaps they don’t know how to play. Maybe all that rehearsal is helpful to them. But it seems to me that if we got rid of the TVs (or just cut down) and gave the kids more free time with basic materials (dirt, sticks, crayons, blank paper, sissors, tape, building blocks, etc.) they would figure it out themselves and we could sit back and observe their fabulous play development. That’s how it has been in the school where I’ve taught and in my own family, in any case. Teaching those “executive functions” in that way is highly teacher-centric and remedial at best.
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