Celebrating Imagination

              I celebrate each Saturday with Ruth Ayres at Discover Play Build - Week number 97! There are many others who celebrate, too. Come join us!          Tweet at #CelebrateLu

         The week filled up with those nice things one savors, good connections, good meetings, good times with friends. But today I celebrate the amazing power of imagination. You know how much I love my grandchildren, also think they're very cute, just as you all think of your own children, family, including dogs. It was National Dog Day on Thursday, did you notice? The wonderful pictures on FB made me wish for a dog again.

          In watching the grand-girls yesterday, I had the chance to contemplate the power of play, am celebrating only one thing today, the power of imagination. There have been a number of articles recently about the importance of play, that too much is being taken away and replaced by worksheets/seatwork, in pre-school too!  I kept Imogene yesterday, and she played. We read, we went to the park and met a worm on the way, imagined what it might be like to live in the grass, all alone. What did it eat? Where did it go at night? At the park, Imi started some game in which she paused, said a nonsense rhyme, a shout, then ran up and down the play space again. I'm not sure what she was doing, but she was smiling all the time. 

          After school, we picked up Ingrid, had snacks, and then they ended up in the back yard for about an hour waiting for Mom to pick them up. They had sticks. Oh, the power of sticks and a garden just high enough to be in another world. For a long time, they pretended an elaborate tale of hardship, being in trouble, calling for help from each other, breaking free, then starting all over again. They would come to the table to grab a few Cheezits, then off again through the plants, calling to each other. "Oh no," they yelled. "I'm in trouble." "Get me out." To us adults, it is fun to watch, and funny, but to children playing out scenes, I do wonder if pretending to "save" each other gives strength for the next challenge little ones face and don't even know they are? So I celebrate that they pretend, get their sticks and take off into the unknown, creating stories.