Sunday, November 11, 2007

IMAGINATION OVERLOAD

I remember being 6, sitting under the table with my li'l cousin and playing for hours with little wooden and plastic kitchen utensils! A couple of years back, I was browsing through Poompuhar (Handicraft store) and I came across a straw box filled with wooden kitchen gadgets and dishes! I got excited looking at this and got one for Nantu. Nantu ofcourse being true to his nature made a train out of all the dishes and spent hours entertaining himself.

Kids have an over active imagination. They imagine monsters out of shadows, they conjure up friends from their imagination. Their bed turns into a jungle, boat, car, mountain, camp ground and so on. And the imagination is so real... I remember a friend's kid who took it on her head that the living room was a ocean filled with sharks and whales... She would jump across couches and coffee tables, anything to keep from putting her foot on the dangerous ocean bed!!

I have always enjoyed these imaginative plays be it the regular mommy - daddy, house-house games or the endless possibilities a cardboard box offers, or wild imaginative play. It amuses me to watch kids at it. The cardboard box is of course the best. Whats with kids and cardboard boxes. No matter how many toys you fill their room with, there will still be the couple of cardboard boxes they love the best. I remember once when we were moving.... I had shipped all of Nantu's toys, and retained a couple of cardboard boxes. He entertained himself with these for one full week...
I am reminded of the Master Card Ad - which lists the price of many toys and then shows a kid playing with a cardboard box
"Watching them play with a cardboard box instead - priceless. There are some things money can't buy, for everything else there is master card".

Sure enough. The cardboard box turns into a tunnel, fort, train and engine and caboose when lined together, garage what not.. the possibilities are indeed endless! Maybe this christmas Santa should bring Nantu a cardboard box!!!

I read in a parenting book recently about how kids believe so strongly in their imagination. To them the imaginary is very real!!! I can relate to this... I loved to live in my imaginary world when I was a kid!! Getting dreamy eyed again....

6 comments:

aMus said...

Hi preethi, that was very good observation...in fact it is said that children should be allowed free play to creatively imagine!

and u have today's kids who are shuffling from one organised activity to another and no time to indulge in boredom and thus imagination...:)

Gomathi Sarma said...

beautiful.. this is so much true..
and dont you think the imagination dies as one gets busy with this busy scientific world.

Fantasies of a Lifetime said...

it was good:). . .Imagination tends our creation!! So do u still imagine to be the president of the free world?? I bet we would love cardboard boxes too if they came in our sizes :P. .humans and cardboard boxes have a special bond. .Life wud be miserable without them!

Compassion Unlimitted said...

Very nicely scripted..creativity is a most important thing as a parent one should ensure in kids..Freedom of expression too forms an inherant part of it..well done
Tc
CU

Vidhya Rajesh said...

reading your blog brought images of calvin and hobbes in front of my eyes ... transmogrification.

What a pity - when the same kids grow up we leave all this wonderful imagination and get into the world of practicality!!!

Preethi said...

@ Thinking Aloud - Yeah we curb their imagination... but when their imagination runs wild that too is real trouble.
@Gomz - Dont say that.... dream on girl!!! :)
@Vish - Oh no we would want boxes made of brick and steel.. we imagine what we think are more realistic and practical things..
@ CU - Kids these days.. there is no stopping them.. and I for one really marvel their creativitty and imagination.
@ Vidya - I love calvin and hobbes too... Had some great laughs with calvin... What creativity!!

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