Yesterday, I heard a radio interview with Joel Bakan about his new book Childhood Under Siege: How Big Business Targets Children. He exposes the detrimental effects of this corporate marketing. One of his warnings in particular struck a chord with me, that of the destruction of children’s imagination. Imagining is not just play; it is a fundamental thinking and relationship skill! Encouraging readiness for kindergarten with imaginative play is today’s blog topic.
Kids often like to imitate adults in their play. Putting what we need to do on hold so that we can interact with our little ones isn’t always possible but sometimes we can combine the playing and working. While we are in the kitchen preparing meals can be one of those times. Kids can cook up something to feed to a teddy bear or other stuffie. Ingredients can be blocks, small toys, bits of fabric or crumpled paper. You and your child may want to pretend that you are the cooks in a restaurant or castle or robots, complete with ro.bot. voi.ces. (I have, on occasion, even asked my kids to pretend to like what I’ve made for dinner.)
Imagination is a very special ingredient for much more than kindergarten readiness. Can you add some to your child’s day?