M is for Make Believe: Building Skills

So cute to see these 'wild animals' outside playing! This one is pretending to be the one elephant who went out to play upon a spider's web one day! It's a cute song by Sharon, Lois and Bram if you don't know it!  Or perhaps he is trying to cross over a river on the log to save himself from hungry crocodiles below! 

Make believe is a developmental milestone as children learn to think beyond the concrete world and imagine what could be possible in the world around them. They can take the toy food objects and not just name them and the colour or quantity but they can imagine pulling them from their place of origin in a land far away and cooking them up as a world famous chef! Why not? It's fun! Some children are not very keen to use their imagination but it opens such a wonderful world to them when they do and so it is a skill that should be encouraged.

I mean, what would it be like if nobody thought up the best of children's books or the greatest Disney movies? What would it be like to only be in the moment and never have the curiosity or drive to consider being another person in another role in another place? Children are notorious for having a diverse list of job considerations as a child so much so that some parents have them state their future aspirations on every birthday. A child might say they want to be a ballerina one year, a bulldozer the next (yes, it is inanimate), a dog then a firefighter then a clown then a daddy and so forth. Their imagination leads them to be interested in learning about new places and things and helps them to piece together different aspects of life.

Explore, learn, grow. Try new things. Eat new foods. Go new places.  and if you cannot do it in reality, imagine it.  Use books to expand your imagination by describing new adventures.  For many children and adults alike, reading a book gives them a reprieve from the challenges of life and let's them escape for a little while into a new world of their choosing. When stuck doing housework all day, Cinderella's story gives them hope that one day new opportunities may come along that change everything. 

Imagination transports simple objects like a rug into a flying carpet traveling over the Arabian desert or a doll into a treasured baby sister who needs to be cared for. It transforms a bedsheet into a mystical tent or a paper towel tube into a sword to slay the dragon and allow you to free the princess. It is wonderful.

When reading to children, give them moments to really soak in the story and the words used to describe the events. Let them carefully observe the drawings and imagine the sights and sounds, tastes and textures of the various components of the story. Make it a truly enriching experience. Then, when they have the opportunity, sit back and let them indulge you in a wonderful story of their own making and enjoy the wonders of a child's imagination and creativity and the bonding that comes from these shared moments of enjoyment!