Imagination or Fantasy

Credited to my daughter - Sicily.

My daughter has at age three evidenced what my sons already proved, that children are abstract and critical thinkers. When my oldest son was three years old and started at a Montessori school, I became Mister Mullen - an art teacher. I watched him learn and wished my senior students could do the same - independently learn about their world without interference.

This year, my daughter began her education 'formally'.

Sicily loves Art and often begins her day in the childrens' house painting. That is cool in itself but there is something I have discovered that is way too cool for school.

One morning as my sons were watching cartoons ( fantasy?). I started the day hanging out with my daughter, it was 6:30am on a Saturday morning. She wanted to draw so I set her up with pen and paper. She drew some gestural pieces and I asked her what they were. She said ' the beach and these are the steps through the sand hills to the water'. My eyes were opened to understand the drawing but also I began to understand her process. What Sicily seemed to do was to create chaos and then use her imagination to translate it into order. It was incredible to watch. All I had to do was listen, really listen. And I caught a glimpse into the world as she saw it, I will never see television the same way.

So back to the cartoons upstairs.There is a hell of a lot of lateral thinking going on in 'Finn & Jake' and Spongebob Square Pants which sets my lads off giggling, so they get it. But what if the fantasy has already been played out in a pre-concieved order. Where does the imagination reside?

And the the toy-box upstairs, full of products that have already been imagined for you. What's the point if 'the colouring in' has already been done?. I get it. Its like the computer programmes I use at work which frustrate me as I try to lateral think within the perimeters of someones else's imagination. I want to imagine and cause unlimited possibilities, not be reduced to the confines of another person's design.

Do dress ups as a fantasy promote imagination or lessen it, by imposing the designer's experience, while limiting the creativity of the  'consumer'?  As an art teacher you would think that I would be an advocate for fantasy, but what if it limits the imagination? I could hardly support that.

 This is a challenge. Not to become a careful consumer, But to listen to your children, Not to give into their demands for product. but to cause opportunities for imagination to run rife, lateral and critical thinking to then kick in and the magic to happen.

The No 1 rule of parenting in my experience is .... listen, really listen to your children, stop everything that you are doing and devote your time and energy to one little person. And you will learn from a great teacher.

Imagine being to taught how to imagine, by the reality of your children.