Creativity Is A Child's Best Toy
You read about it, you hear about it but really how important is imagination and
creativity in your child's play? You are told too many toys stifles your child's creativity and imagination. You need to buy toys that bring out the creativity and imagination in your child's play. What does that mean exactly?You see your children playing in boxes, making cars out of boxes, or a bed for a doll out of a box. When given a box there is an endless variety of uses a child will find if they have been given the opportunity to develop their imagination and creativity.
If you look at children at the beach playing what do you see them doing? They are digging in the sand making sand castles, or homes, with roads all around. Even if they don't have a pail and shovel they improvise by using sticks, rocks, and pretty shells as their tools. They can even make sticks and stones for cars, people or animals. There is no limitation as to where their imagination will take them.
Playtime to children is like our work time. Only it is not drudgery, it is fun; it's discovery of how things work together. It's as simple as a little child opening and closing a cupboard door. They see the pots and pans, they may even take some out and close the door and open it again. They put some pans back and close it again and walk away, stop and go back to open the cupboard and seem amazed that the objects are still there. I observed this first hand watching over and over while this action was repeated, wondering how fascinating a simple thing like this must be to a toddler. Apparently it was much more fun than playing with the fancy toys in the other room.
Give a child some blankets and sheets, what do they do with them. They somehow make tents and create their own little world. Send them outside and you're likely to find them playing with grass, sticks, or rocks and have created an imaginary town. There is no limit to a child's imagination if you provide the right environment.
Playtime teaches kids to discover who they are, what they can do, and figure out how things work. They find out what they are good at. They don't realize it as they are playing, but they are developing their problem solving skills as they pretend play. Think about it, when a child uses their imagination in play they usually have to come up with an idea of what or who they are. There is usually one child leading, as others are following. All those involved are giving their input as to what needs to be done to get this going.
They are processing the how, when, what, where, and why and than they go for it. If you think about it, it is much like they are going through the entire problem solving steps that take place in everyday business or life. The more they play this way the more confident they become. As normal kids, disagreements will take place usually about one always having to be the leader, or it's my turn not yours, and so on. As long as these disagreements don't get out of hand, they are a great way to learn problem solving. See how exciting this kind of play is for a child! It's a time of being in control of their life, and figuring things out even if it's for a short time. As you can see, imagination and creativity teaches them planning, problem solving steps, dealing with emotions, and many thought provoking situations. All of this leads up to a much more positive attitude.
I think with all the new electronic toys and the educational toys always trying to grab their attention to do only what that particular toy can do limits this kind of creativity. I think there is a time and place for these toys, but not to have the child constantly bombarded with every new toy that comes out. Creative playing gives a special freedom of letting kids be themselves. To let their minds turn them into whatever and whoever they want to be at a moments notice. It is this kind of play that needs to be encouraged.
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