Youngsters as they become aware of their world around them see it with an almost magical mix of imagination and real world. It’s delightful to see them break the ‘rules’ and describe things using their own imagination to fill in details they didn’t already learn.
Adults seem to forget what it was like to have a free flowing imagination and we push children into seeing the world as we do. My sister did her best to honour her children’s imaginations and creativity for as long as she could. Like before teachers, taught it out of them.
I remember the day my niece was happily drawing with her crayons. She was drawing some trees and sky. My mother was visiting at the time. Seeing my niece with a blue crayon in hand drawing a tree she immediately objected and told her she was wrong. She should draw the tree properly.
My sister and I looked at each other, ready to intervene. My niece paused for a moment and then we heard, “Nana, today, in my world, trees are blue”. Back she went to drawing leaving my mother with a shocked looked on her face at the polite but firm “NO” she just got.
I was so proud of my niece protecting her right to use her imagination. My mind wandered back to a time when I had not defended mine.
One of my grade school teachers would bring out a box of pictures at creative writing time and have us select a picture. We then had to write a story based on the picture.
One day I found a picture of the Planter’s peanut guy dressed as a pirate. I fell in love with it, took it back to my desk. The ideas were rolling before I even sat down.
I had him out on the high seas capturing and plundering ships, stealing all their peanuts to build his empire. I was rather proud of myself and even more so when my teacher gave me an A+. None of my stories had ever got an A and I got an A+.
I raced home to show my mother.
She looked at the story and went off on a rant about the stupidity of what kids were being taught in school these days. I put the story away and never looked at it again. I regret having done so, I should have treasured that first good mark for a story.
I’ve wondered sometimes if my immediately loving @dreemsteem’s idea of having a Treasure Hunt among posts was because the imaginative nature of it reminded me of that long ago story.
In my imagination, I had no problem seeing the planter’s guy as a pirate. There were no limitations to what he could do and I let the story flow. I didn’t care that peanuts didn’t have people characteristics, or couldn’t talk or any other real flaw with the image. It was limitless.
Being an adult now, I can make the choice to let my imagination flow again. It is only my mind that can stop me now, if I let it. It’s not always easy. I think imagination is something that once it’s been caged it loses its muscle and has to rebuild it’s strength.
Do you let your imagination fly?
Shadowspub is a writer from Ontario, Canada. She writes on a variety of subjects as she pursues her passion for learning. She also writes on other platforms and enjoys creating books you use like journals, notebooks, coloring books etc.
NOTE: unless otherwise stated, all images are the author’s
- base image on header from Pixabay.com
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Imagination is vital to the early development of a child. I am glad you guys gave importance to it :))
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My 2nd grade teacher also did something similar... we had this massive 3 board blackboard that had to be 15 feet across at least?!?! and he would use all his different colored chalk to draw this HUGE scene for us... they were all masterpieces to me - i mean the depth of his vision!!! and he would put classical music on for us and we would just sit there for 20-3o minutes watching him create this intricate scene piece by piece - and then... we would write stories too! hehehe
so - thanks for that amazing memory!!
but... while reading your post... I went from being elated at your niece - and you - and both of your imaginations... and your teacher's ingenuity!!! to the overwhelming sadness you must have felt.
It breaks my heart to no end - to realize how many of these little "unnoticed" hurts have happened to children. I know parents dont' always realize they're doing it. and my gosh - I'm sure I've done it too. But still - it breaks my heart to see how one stray sentence can do such damage.
You put that A+ away...
this is terrible. and i'm so sorry that you felt that your achievement wasn't worth more to your mom. But I'm glad that YOU had that moment of pride that you still held onto! Even though the picture went away.
and i'm glad that another pirate came into your life, and stirred up some fun for you! hehehehe
(she's pretty grateful for you too - just in case you didn't know hahaha)
and wait til you see what I just pulled up from the internet. I'm sure it's not yours. hehehe but someone apparently had the same idea - because it's actually called "planters peanut pirate" hahahahahaha
enjoy!!!!
picture from here...
hahahaha and here is another one - but its a Skippy peanut butter pirate! LOL
perhaps they have dueled on the high seas together!
or... maybe they belong to the famous peanut pirate gang LOLOL
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It’s when you can hear the child muttering to himself and oblivious of his surroundings, then his imagination is fully working.
I'm so glad your niece protected her imagination. It's such an important part of our lives and we can so, so easily get disconnected from it.
It was super amazing to hear this amazing story, let the imagination of children fly is something magical, and not only of the little ones, but also of any person, we all have the right to dream and to live our lives with a little fantasy... I really liked your post:)