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little wild thing: 5 ways to encourage imagination

books inspire child's play Children's books fill the child with ideas, fairy tales and myths that nourish their imaginations and add on to their own experiences. A childhood favorite, Where the Wild Things Are, is now a classic children's picture book. The unbridled imagination of the mischievous boy in the story gives full reign to children's imaginations everywhere. 

Even our sweet small one's wild imagination.

At first banned in libraries from young readers, like other well-known literature (the following contain Amazon Affiliate links)— The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Catcher in the Rye, The Giving Tree (we cherished this book and our maple giving trees here)—Where the Wild Things Are is now recognized for it's celebration of children's imaginations and for sharing how a child conquers his negative feelings. This masterpiece of children's books, now 50 years old, was awarded a Caldecott Medal for it's illustrations.

 

uninterrupted play When deep in thought and play, children's imaginations bring them to magically almost-real places. Leave this time uninterrupted so they can fully explore and develop the stories they have created in their pretend play. Allow them to enjoy and stay in their imagination—and the creative places they have built in their minds.

give them time Allow an abundance of unscheduled, unstructured time so they have the possibility to dream, pretend, and wildly imagine. If your child is too busy—with lessons, practice, and structured activities—their minds will not have time to wander and create.

independent play Learning they can creatively occupy themselves is a powerful life-long lesson for children—and parents, teachers, and caregivers. Children don't need an abundance of toys, electronic media, organized outings, or planned crafts and activities to entertain themselves. Becoming self-sufficient at play can encourage inventiveness and creativity that will benefit them in life, and their learning odyssey.   

learn along the way On their imaginative journeys, children learn to triumph over obstacles, conquer their fears, explore far away places with bravery and an adventuresome spirit, and follow their ambitions—And these lessons learned are grand ones to have in the real world too.

*We share more ideas for pretend play in Foot Prince in the Snow. ©heather cahoon • wordplayhouse®

 

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acorn fairies: making imaginative nature playthings

Above, fairy houses imagined from hollow tree trunks; and an apron pocket to put acorn treasures from a nature walk—for acorn and wool felt fairy making.

 

A lot of nature play. A little creative play. Some outdoor explores drew us beneath a shadow-dappling oak tree. The branches hung heavy with acorns that dropped to our feet and down to treasure-seeking little hands below. The children were smitten with these golden acorns.

An apron pocket was a perfect place to pick them up and put them. 

 

Little minds' imaginations dreamt our acorn treasures were like faces with plaid hats. And they were encouraged that they could be. So, a drawing was dreamed up by a fly-away-with-her-imagination young girl...  

And our children gathered their felted wool, and imaginations, and the little acorns became sweet little acorn fairies. And then fairy homes must be built for them. And then our children played with their handmade toys, made by their own hands. The nature walk, felt fairy making, and fairy home building turned into a most-of-the-day fairy play— 

 

All because of finding a few acorns and putting them in an apron pocket.

 

   

making your own imaginative nature playthings

Enjoy a nature walk collecting nature's baubles so your children can create their own fairies or woodmen. Our daughter created her fairies from twigs and acorns, with wool felt for the frocks and fairy wings. Any scraps of fabric could be used, but easy-to-use felt is ideal for little hands to sew or glue. It doesn't fray; and its thickness makes it easy to handle and cut.

Read a book about a little girl made all out of nature things like those you've found: The Newberry award winner book, Miss Hickory (Amazon Affiliate link), by Carolyn Sherwin Bailey. You will be enamored by the sweet, vintage lithograph print illustrations—so much that you will want to frame them. A 1946 adventurous tale all about a little nature-made being.

Just like the ones we've made with our acorns and twigs. 

Amazon Affiliate links to this book, below—

  

We love exploring our outdoors, then coming inside to make projects from our nature scavenger hunts. See our love nature walk project for another nature craft to make together. ©heather cahoon • wordplayhouse®

 

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