This is a guest post by Amanda Daniels.
If your kid is anything like mine, he loves to dress up. And not just for Halloween but for birthday parties, holidays and, well, because it’s a Tuesday. If he can get to his rain boots, Batman cape and T-ball uniform, he’ll wear them to school, the store, to bed, wherever. And who am I to say: “No. You can’t wear that?” His little mind works in wonderful ways I can never understand.
However … I can play along. I can step out of my adult world and have some fun with the little guy. The saying, “wisdom begins with wonder” has never rung more true. While some kids get caught up in TV and video games, others are playing yoga tag and jumping in mud puddles with friends. Parents tend to enroll their kids in a sport or two or three with practice every day, which is a wonderful way to develop certain skills but allows little room for the creative freedom of the imagination to soar.
Activate Their Senses
Take your kids on little field trips to the library to experience books. Go to the zoo and talk about animal safaris. Remind them to smell the salt in the air at the beach and feel the cold of the snow. Take them fishing so they can have a sense of the outdoors and see the beauty that exists in nature.
By tapping into the imagination, kids can cure some of their most stressful moments. For example, in the book The Power of Your Child’s Imagination: How to Transform Stress and Anxiety into Joy and Success, the author talks about empowering your child to survive this often stressful world with easy and creative skills. Imagine your child, plagued by a headache, able to use his imagination to picture an ice blue pillow to cool his head.
Plan a Party Together
Maybe it’s a birthday party, a party because it’s Thursday or a 4th of July extravaganza — go big with costumes for everyone! A pirate theme is fun for all ages and you can get cheap plus-size costumes for couples and kids at online costume shops (around 75 percent off), along with everything your kid’s little buccaneer imagination can muster up. From eye patches and treasure maps to gold-filled treasure chests and shoulder-sitting parrots, this is the kind of creativity we should help them dream up!
Invite kids and parents and watch your child delight in the wonder of planning a party with his own imagination (and you can have some satisfaction, too).
Go Old School
Childtime.com makes a valid point when comparing games of older generations to those of today. Without computers, TVs, iPads and video games (well OK some of us had old-school video games), children have to fend for themselves in the fun department. They begin creating fantasy and alternate worlds, which is healthy.
Expose your kids to this kind of imagination. They don’t have to do it alone, though. Play with paints and Legos; let them dress up in your clothes and wear your jewelry; get out the glue and crayons. Make messes. Explore the city or the woods together. Run through sprinklers. By doing these things together, you’ll have a happier kid and a free-spirited you.
Amanda Daniels is an eco-conscious wife, mom and writer from Portland, Maine. She covers sustainability issues and parenting topics for a variety of blogs and her local paper.
