Posted on 01/23/2017
For the preschool set, imagination is best fostered through play. Sadly, our kids are abandoning play all-too-early, thanks to a combination of “tween” cultural expectations, technology, and structured extracurricular activities. But even if you had to put away the play kitchen, dress-ups, and doll house far earlier than you’d hoped, you can still foster your child’s imagination through literacy. Yes, good old reading and writing; It’s really not just for school.
“Reading” Activities for Pre-Readers
Kids learn to read at different ages, and that’s okay. Before a child learns how to read, he or she can still develop literacy skills, such as understanding that in English, we read from left to right. But imagination can also benefit from this pre-reading stage. Picture books are excellent prompts for imagination, since children can learn to imagine a story as they look at the pictures. Don’t correct them! If they don’t want you to read to them because they’d rather tell YOU the story, they may not be benefiting from hearing you read aloud, but they are flexing a different literary muscle, so let them!
“Writing” Activities for Pre-Writers
While you’ve been doing it for years, writing is actually a pretty complex skill. Not only does it require fine motor skills, but it also requires the young student to think about many things, such as letter formation, spelling, capitalization, punctuation, grammar, and more. When any of those skills are not yet well honed, thinking about actually creating a story can just be too much. For that reason, many writing teachers encourage kids to start “creative writing” with narration. While it’s difficult for a classroom teacher to do at school with a dozen or more kids, it’s perfect for parents to do at home.
Ready for your narration training? Simply ask your child to tell you a story, and as he or she speaks, write or type it out. Then you can read it back to your child, asking him or her to make any changes that don’t “sound right.” You can start with asking your child to narrate a story about something that actually happened or about something from a book or movie. But using imagination to create a new story is a great end goal. As a bonus, readers can learn more about the mechanics of writing through narration than typical classroom activities, because they’re likely to be interested in seeing how their own words and sentences look on a page.
Reading for Fun
Reading fiction is, of course, a great way to continue to develop your child’s imagination. As kids get older, their work load from school typically grows. Maybe the last thing they want to do is read. Instead of offering a reward for reading (such as the same amount of screen time), why not associate something positive with leisurely reading? Maybe it’s the only way they can stay up past bedtime or take a snack or beverage to their bedroom. Or maybe they get to do it in a special place, like in a closet or in Mom and Dad’s bedroom.
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