IMAGINATION...

As writers we should have an abundance of imagination...and more importantly, use it. As children we have so much imagination, often told too much, and we use it constantly. We dream and play and anything is possible. However we grow and are told not to be dreamers, to be realistic, to stop 'playing' and we use our imagination less and less.


It's school holidays so it is program after program for us at the library. So far we've had a maker space which consists of putting out a table load of craft items and allowing the children to make what they could/ would. We had tubes of all sizes, aluminium foil, icy pole sticks, long sticks, feathers, patty pan papers, twine, pom poms, cotton balls, pipe cleaners, coloured paper, googly eyes and so much more.

The children made puppets and rockets, rabbits and collage pictures, machine guns and kites, kaleidoscopes and binoculars, dolls and mobiles. It was so much fun.


They can look at something and see so much more in it.

I've also ran a Teddy Bear's Picnic, another fun event. Everyone bought their bear along (or Pokemon or monkey or elephant) and at one stage we did a hands on storytelling of We're Going on a Bear Hunt. The bears had to swim through the river, tiptoe through the cave...when it was time to run back home, the bear hot on our heels, get inside and lock the doors...I quickly sat down clutching my bear and said 'Oh no, I've forgotten to lock the door'...and so many little people told me that it was okay, they had shut and locked the door.

They were all in the moment. We had all run up the stairs, jumped into bed, with the door securely shut and locked behind us. It was such a great moment to be a part of. This immersion into the game. Allowing imagination to take us for a ride.


Miss Two wanders our garden, patting all the 'animals' and having a chat to them. She sniffs the flowers and says 'hmmm lovely.' Even if they have no scent. She's interacting. Using her imagination. At the moment Miss Nine has left her Ipad, has put on garden gloves and her gumboots and is outside 'gardening'.

She doesn't really know the difference between plants, trees or weeds but I'm so glad she is outside and playing. Not taking videos of herself pulling faces, or watching youtube video after video.


Children grow up too quickly. They become mini adults, trying to be mature and grown up with all the crap that it involves. And our imagination dwindles away, practicality and common sense become our buzz words. Then when we are adults, and we need our imagination it often comes sluggishly.

Wouldn't it be great if we kept the imagination, as huge and expanding as when we were kids.

Just imagine the stories we could tell then.



Vicki 

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