Youthful Imagination

Above: The children and Karlee launched a ship they made from drift wood. Then the kids got to sink it with rocks! They enjoy every second of it.

When I take my 3-5 year olds to the outdoor play yard I wait till they ask for materials or until fifteen minutes are up. Blocks, sand toys, babies, trucks/diggers, chalk, gardening tools (child safe), balls, and water tools. I will set up a water table on sunny day and open the sand box no matter the weather. Sometimes I setup a art table with rocks to paint or paper to draw on. The yard isn’t huge, still we have two climbers, a sand box, a sports field, and a gazebo. It fits them all and has very little blind spots.

At first they asked for toys instantly, but as time went on I would bring the materials out at fifteen minute mark. Most the time the toys will go untouched. I noticed a major difference in play and their social skills. They began to group together, all 16 of them sometimes or in groups of eight. Some play games to save the world, and others use invisible gadgets and tools. Some cook with rocks and sand or even build their own garden by picking weeds and sticking them into the ground. They began using their imaginations and became less reliant on material goods.

Ever since my partner and I tried this the children’s observations of the world blossomed. Here are a few questions and answers they have come up with all on their own that make me giggle:

Quotes from children:

At lunch my four and five year olds have been doing different kinds of jokes. One of the three year olds ask me, “why did the chicken cross the road?”
“I don’t know, why?” I ask.
His big brown eyes widen. “I don’t know, that way I ask’n.”

Five girls playing house. One three year old girl grabbed the flashlight. “We need this.”
A five year old girl grips her hips with both hands and tosses out her bottom lip. “Why would we need that?”
“To see in to our darkness.”

Outside a five year old and four year old boy is freezing dinosaurs to save Elsa (from Frozen) from all dinosaurs.
“What is the dinosaur with the long tail and two legs called?”
“Philosoraptor?” I ask unsure.
“No…not that one…”
“Tyrannosaurus rex?”
“Yeah that one.” And off he went.
Soon he came back with a puzzled expression. “Chianne. What’s the flying ones called?”
“Pterodactyl.”
A three year old girl stops beside me. “Turn-to-apples? That’s a silly name! Funny dinosaur, there not apples.”

“Look a dragonfly,” yelled one of my four year old boys as he climbed up the big rock in the yard.
“Why is it called a dragonfly?” asked his four year old friend.
“Maybe its because they were dragons that turned in to flies,” replied the boy as he chases it away.

I can’t wait to see and hear what else they’re going to come up with as they grow. It makes me wonder where did my youthful imagination go. Yes I know why we’d need a flash light or the names of dinosaurs, it’s the way they view the world and bend it to what suits them that moment. Creating games out of things they don’t enjoy to make it fun. Why can’t we, as adults, do this anymore? Where did the sense of wonder get lost? School? Puberty? Heart break after heart break? Did we all get hardened over the years because we do know what a dragonfly is?

As I teach the children manners and how to zip zippers I hope they can teach me how to wonder again.

Don’t get me wrong my imagination is strong, my husband would say it’s too strong, but to have eye’s that can see past the shell of reality. See things in a way that society and all its gadgets and technology has tried to force out of me, a way that only my imagination can show me. Now that would be interesting.

C.B