Unleash Your Child’s Imagination
When children have space in their days to slow down and play freely, they gain a valuable opportunity to explore their imagination and creativity. Unstructured time becomes a blank canvas and they can invent, experiment and embark on exciting imaginary adventures guided by their own ideas and curiosity. Imagination flourishes when children are free to decide how to play, what to create and which stories to bring to life, and everyday spaces – homes, gardens, parks, or nearby green areas, can be transformed into magical worlds.Because imaginative play often deepens over time, having uninterrupted periods to play allows children to develop ongoing ideas and creative ‘projects’. Dens in the corner of the living room, forts in the garden, or evolving obstacle courses can grow gradually as imaginary worlds become more elaborate (if you can resist tidying them away). Time spent playing with others – through playdates, clubs, or shared activities, also strengthens imagination. By collaborating, children exchange ideas, solve problems together and build rich storylines, supporting both their creativity and social development.
So how can parents help to nurture their child’s imagination? Here are some tips…
Provide open-ended materials
Open-ended materials are items that can be used in various ways, allowing children to explore, manipulate and transform them in different ways. Materials such as cardboard boxes, dressing-up costumes, art supplies, loose parts such as buttons, beads, ribbons, and natural objects like sticks, shells and rocks are great materials for children to build structures, create characters, tell stories and design imaginary worlds. They encourage children to think outside the box, experiment with different combinations and adapt their play as they go along. Avoid giving specific instructions or plans to follow as this will limit exploration instead of igniting their creativity.
Recommended Play Idea: Build a Cardboard Castle
Encourage pretend play
Get involved with the pretend play, but allow your child to take the lead. Observe their ideas and join in, supporting their storylines and characters. By allowing them to be in control, you are empowering your child, and collaborative play will also strengthen your bond. Ask open-ended questions, such as “What do you think will happen next?” or “How would your character solve this problem?” This will encourage critical and imaginative thinking. Asking your child to describe their play scenarios and encouraging them to create a beginning, middle and end to their ‘stories’ will also support their language development and storytelling skills.
Recommended Play Idea: Pretend Shopkeeper
Storytime
Storytelling is a great way to spark your child’s imagination. Reading books together is extremely valuable, but it’s also important to tell your own invented stories to your child. Let them see that you can make it up as you go along, and that imagination can take you anywhere; it’s full of twists, turns and surprises! A fun storytelling activity is to take turns telling a story together. Let your child come up with the theme of the story, the opening line or make up the ending. Inventing stories or acting them out together not only fuels children’s imaginations but also helps to strengthen your bond with them.
Being bored is good!
Children who are allowed to get bored are forced to use their imagination in order to find their own entertainment. It’s important for parents to play with their children, but it is also beneficial for them to not be constantly entertained. Being bored allows children to explore ideas, let their thoughts and imagination roam, and think creatively.
So hold your nerve when your child complains about being bored because it shows them that it isn’t the end of the world, they can work through it, rely on themself, and become more resilient.
Turn off the screen
It’s tempting for busy parents to use a device as a babysitter sometimes, and while some screen time is ok, it generally isn’t great for nurturing your child’s imagination. Screen time is usually a passive activity, and when children are engaged in passive activities such as watching television they are taking in other people’s images and ideas instead of coming up with their own. Think of imagination as a muscle; if it’s not used it will weaken. Creative activities, playing outside, or reading a book will do so much more for your child’s imagination and creativity than long periods of screen time.
Get outside
Nature inspires and expands our imaginations, and outdoor free play is great for your child’s creativity while also providing many social, emotional and cognitive benefits. Lie on your back and watch the fluffy clouds float by, asking your child what shapes they see, or when it’s dark, look up into the night sky at the moon and stars. Sit and listen to the waves at the seaside, or put a shell to their ear and ask if they can hear the sea. Climb trees that transform into magical castles. Show your child all the different things a stick can be – a pirate’s sword, a spoon to stir mud pies, the start of a frame for a den. The possibilities are endless.
Recommended Play Idea: Nature Scavenger Hunt
Worry less about the mess
Children are messy and noisy. For their imaginations to thrive they need to mix the playdough colours together, spill the glitter everywhere, pull the cushions off the sofa, and colour outside the lines. If you can help it, try not to hover in the background with the vacuum cleaner and the disinfectant while their creative juices are flowing or they are in the middle of fighting a dragon!