Prepare to resist running about the day. Hurry has ill effects. I desire to be peacefully going about doing the next thing. Old faithful habits make order out of disorder and leave space for both practice and play. We can be content to be God’s children through life’s challenges.
Karen Andreola
Alice in Wonderland asks the Cheshire cat, “Will you tell me, please, which way I ought to go?” The cat replies, “That all depends a good deal on where you want to get to.” Alice insinuates that she doesn’t know which way to go. The cat states, “Then it doesn’t matter which way you go.”
I could hear Charlotte, “Tyson, it’s going to be ok. Sit down in this wagon, and when I let go, you will go flying down the hill. It will be so fun!” My eyes widened as I came around the corner. Intervening on that adventure, I explained that halfway down the hill was plenty for a small toddler. Tyson squealed with delight as he soared two and a half feet down the slight embankment.
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Having a destination and knowing how to get there matters. The imagination of our children is at stake. Entertainment now tries to distort the experience with too much agenda, instead of enjoying Peter Rabbit and the timeless tales from Aesop’s fables.
When stories and play are incorporated into a child’s day, a wonderful thing happens: the children develop an imagination. If children are allowed to spend their days immersed in beautiful stories and engaging play, they develop fibrous brain tissue that children without these opportunities do not. Imagining is an amusement and pleasure even into adulthood. It is also a critical brain booster that lays the foundation for other forms of thinking. Each time a child plays make-believe, they are stretching their imagination farther.
Once upon a time, adults knew how to play as children. We played in the alleyways and engaged in late-night hide-and-seek throughout the neighborhoods. We made boats to sail down the creek and pretended we were from some far-off country. Have we outsmarted our own imaginations and to the praises of community stunted childhood by creating organized play and screens that amuse us?
I feel it’s a great responsibility because I have only the one chance. If I don’t grow up right, I can’t go back and begin over again.
Anne of Green Gables
Setting the table for supper with freshly baked bread, everyone gathered around to share the day and eat a delicious meal. Standing up in her chair, Charlotte excitedly told the best part of her day, ‘We made a pretend kitchen down by the creek!” Interruptions flowed from excited mouths over their new “mud kitchen” and all the customers and baked goods they were turning out.
I had recently listened to a lady share her desire for her children to imagine and her invention of a “mud kitchen“; a place where her kids can pretend and create while getting filthy. I sat steeped in the conversation because we shared the same views. Charlotte continued, “It has a stove and oven and a place for us to take orders and take people their soup!” Amazing what cinder blocks, wood, and old garden pavers can create. I sat watching Tyson making mud pies as fast as he could toddle to the wood table. (theartofhomepodcast.com ; treehouseschoolhouse.com)
Parents, we save the spelling test in pencil and paper, lanterns, and a drawing of a house. Beneath the border of blue spokes of sunshine onto four grinning stick figures who stand on a slice of lawn, forked fingers linked to those nearby. Childhood becomes sacred the moment we turn our heads.
Linda Goodman Robiner
On Leave It to Beaver, the boys are building a raft to cross a river to a small island. They ask their dad to join in helping them. The father tells them no because he needs to spend some time with their mother. His wife then asks him why he doesn’t go? He responds, “Because if I help, I will build a raft that would probably work, and they may actually make it to the island. I would steal their play of a raft that didn’t work.”
Watching bunnies in the yard, we found one that had lost its home. Charlotte and I kept it safe for the day until we could return it in the evening when we knew the rabbits would come out in the field and eat clover. We found the bunny’s nest and left it. “Mom, she said, “How will they know it’s here? We can’t just leave it. She can’t see the baby.” I smiled at Charlotte, “Oh, she sees. Mothers see everything.” It was a joy to watch the family reunite and see Charlotte’s eyes dance with wonder as Peter Rabbit came to life in her own backyard.
If we give our children regular opportunities to get in touch with God’s creation, a habit is formed that will be a source of delight throughout their lives.
Anonymous
Imagination makes great adults later on. Fight for those front yard convictions, hold fast to walks in the woods; they are adventures in the making.
The city streets will be filled with boys and girls playing there. Zechariah 8:5
