In chatting with my nearly-grown teenagers, we find ourselves talking about their memories from their childhood—different games they played and adventures they remember. It strikes me that some of their fondest memories are of games they made up themselves and toys they invented from found items. Despite thousands of dollars spent on the latest and greatest educational toys—their best moments were with found toys and made-up games.
My son was the king of doing all sorts of creative things with sticks and rocks. He would spend all morning choosing just the right stick or I can remember coming home from camping trips and vacations with “treasures” in the back of the mini-van: sticks, rocks, shells, chunks of bark—things that then became toys when we got them home. Of course, often those found items turned themselves into weapons for my son—but I much preferred that to the real, life-like weapons anyway. All three of my children were constantly gathering interesting items which then became part of their daily games and play.
There was just something about the discovery of an item and the immediate turning on of the imagination that my kids remember so fondly. They would much rather make dishes for their dolls out of leaves and flowers than to bring the actual dishes outside from the playroom. I always found that reality delightful, but a little puzzling. The imagination of a child is such a fabulous thing and I certainly don’t buy into the doomsday reports that modern children don’t know how to access their imaginations. Given enough time and space, I think children will naturally experiment with found toys and items and make up their own “games” and activities to go along with them. We just need to give them enough unstructured time to let their imaginations unravel!
See Also: Kids Need to Play
Pretend With Your Child and Improve His Future
Imagination: It’s Not Just for Children