Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Where's Your Sense of Imagination?


Excuse me while I rant on a soapbox for a while.

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Apparently, imagination is a thing of the past.  You can now purchase, for the low, low price of $16.99, an already made lemonade stand so your six year old can get right to the making of money.


Last time I checked, the making and attempting to sell without making a dime was all the fun.  Gorging yourself on overly sweet lemonade because your friend dumped in four cups of sugar instead of one was fun.  Serving lemonade to your mom for a dime (which she would promptly pretend to drink and then politely throw out because of the dirt clod) was fun.  Ransacking the house for supplies, driving your mom crazy in the process, was fun!  Not the making of the money itself.  Where's the imagination in this?  Okay, okay....you get to write your own sign and color it (maybe it's a cranberry juice stand).  But, isn't that what a coloring book is for?  Lemonade stands are supposed to be built out of old cardboard boxes and old things from around the house.

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I love it when Lallie pretends, role plays, makes up songs.....dreams (and then tells me about them).  That's her imagination at work and we love it!  We get our biggest smiles when she's doing these adorably cute little things.  We hope she keeps this imagination throughout life and we'll forever encourage it.  My parents encouraged mine.  Husband's parents encouraged theirs.  I would like to think we're encouraging Lallie's and I'd REALLY like to think most parents are encouraging their own kids.  From imagination comes knowledge, the ability to think among others, an incredible sense of humor!

Lallie:  Night night daddy, don't let the bed bugs bite!
Daddy:  I won't!
Lallie:  But they will, they'll eat you all up in your sleep!
Daddy:  Oh no! What will I do?
Lallie:  Just kidding, they don't eat you.
Daddy:  Oh thank goodness!  Phew!
Lallie:  No, I'm not kidding, they're eating you right now!  They're on your insides!
Daddy: Oh no!  Oh no!  Ahhhhhh!
Lallie:  Just kidding, bed bugs are nice.

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Recently, Lallie and I made our own puppet show out of a box.  We glued some old fabric on for the curtains and decorated it like crazy with puffs and buttons and paint.  And then we role played (rather, Lallie dictated to me what to say and I promptly obliged).  Lallie loves it and refuses to let the ragged box go ("Mom, you can't throw it away, it's for the Easter bunny, that's where he's keeping his eggs until next year.  Mom, do bunnies lay eggs?")

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With the pre-made castle, you don't have to spend anytime with your kids making tents out of old sheets in her room or between the couches.  I remember making tents at my grandma's house in between the two twin beds.  We'd play for hours whether it be army or castle or school!

Lallie had a tent her room for a few weeks not too long ago.  Sure, her room didn't quite look clean, but she loved to sit under her tent and play house with her kitchen and read books so we saw no harm in it for a while.  I remember a few nights when Husband had to read books underneath the tent.  It was Lallie's dream come true!


I'm surprised they don't have a fort.  When I was a kid, I spent hours with my cousin cleaning out the underneath of this HUGE bush on the side of my grandma's house.  We'd sit inside, hiding from the young kids who had no clue it was there and spying on cars as they went by, pretending they were the evil forces coming from Castle Greyskull to wipe us all out.  We swept the dirt floor clean until no roots stuck out, made sure we had visible, yet hidden views.  After all, we had to protect ourselves from the enemies!  We'd spend hours cornering areas of the barns on the farm to catch the skiddish farm cats, scaring them stiff when we finally caught them, then carrying them to our fort as our captured Greyskull enemies.  Bwahahahahaha!!!

But why use our imaginations and get dirty when, again, for the low, low price of $16.99, we can have one already made for us without all the dirt, the grime....or the imagination.

It's sad, really, it is.

"Imagination is more important than knowledge."  Albert Einstein

3 comments:

  1. So, I guess I'll return the pre-made lemonade stand I bought for Lallie for her birthday? Darn! OK, I'll just stick with a book ;-).

    Ashleigh

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  2. YES, YeS, yes!!
    My Daddy owned an appliance store, boxes girly! Oh we made rockets, houses, kool~aid stands, and so much more! When I first started teaching he still had his store, I took a refrigerator box in and we made a bus! Those kids LOVED it! Between all the video (crap) and techy toys I could just cry! Kids NEED to be kids. Bike, swing, skip and spin until they fall!!!! Lordy, you got me ALL fired up about this! You hit the nail on the head!! NUFF said.

    Love and Hugs,
    Mrs. Kindergarten...aka...Madame Spoiled

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  3. It is sad to see that you can just purchase the items we had to dream up and create on our own. I am glad you let lallie have the tent for awhile I know she enojyed it. i loved getting to make forts.

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