The imagination is a most powerful tool.  Close your eyes and instantly you can be across town, in another city, in Timbuktu, or even on the moon.  You can go back in time, or forward if you choose.  Problems can be solved, hurts healed, and always there is hope to be brought back into every day life.  Much can be experienced with a little imagination, and much learned.

Stories where animals talk and have adventures can also be a “jumping-off” place for your child’s imagination.  With a little prompting from you, these tales can help your child begin to understand the self and others in ways that are fun, entertaining, even enlightening.

I invite you to read these stories aloud to your child and after each one take the time to talk about it.  Invite your child to create alternate endings or make up new stories using the same characters.  Build a story together by trading off a sentence or paragraph at a time.  You’ll be surprised at how creative your child can be.  In this way you will experience a special time together, one of wonderment, questioning, learning and understanding—a time of imagining.

By the way, you can imagine too.  The child inside you has been around much longer than the adult.  Take a break from grown-up cares and responsibilities.  Allow your inner child to imagine along with you.  You’ll find that entertainment need not be expensive.  Rather, it can be but a blink away and as close as the wishes you’ve carried around in your heart since you were little.  Sometimes the best guides for this are your own children.  Look into their eyes and see your own.

Have a dictionary handy for those words your child doesn’t understand.  Look up the word and explain it, and show them how this is done.  They’ll not only learn new words but also how to express themselves and understand others better.  While the deepest experiences in life may be wordless, sharing them with the right words can help us relate better and with more meaning.  It all works together.

Above all, HAVE FUN!

© 2012 Will Limón