I’ve always had a great imagination…growing up my parents decided not to have a television in the house, they felt that there were too many ‘bad’ shows on (read: bad influence to growing minds) so us kids (4 of us) were able to allow our imagination to flourish unabated. We were bookworms, we would check out books from the library every week. Along with that, when the weather was nice we would play for hours outside thinking up new and creative things to do. Our family went camping every year, towing a trailer and going to our ‘usual’ spots in the mountains or at the ocean.

So one of the things us kids would do when playing would be to tie wagons behind our bicycles and pretend to go camping (complete with mimicking my dad who would get impatient with my mom directing him as he backed the trailer up into the campsite, then he’d get out and have her back up while he directed – usually spewing not-so-choice words if she wasn’t quite doing it right…) I’m sure if my parents had been outside listening to us mimicking our dad’s vocals, they might have had second thoughts about the TELEVISION being a ‘bad influence’! (snicker!) We would make up all kinds of games and elaborate scavenger hunts, keeping ourselves occupied and out of my mom’s hair.

All those creative events and antics had faded from my memory, but over the last couple of years I have been quite pleased to see that Princess Nagger also has a hugely creative imagination. Since she’s an only child, she also includes some imaginary friends with her playtime – something I don’t remember us kids doing as we grew up, but since there were four of us, we didn’t have time for imaginary friends, we were busy trying to get each other in trouble! 😉 Since Princess Nagger started school, she is less reliant on those imaginary friends, but her creative play and imagination are only growing. It’s so much fun to watch her play (and she immediately stops doing whatever she’s doing if she catches either me or my hubby watching her in action).

Papa came up for a visit yesterday, and she brought out some cool learning mats we had gotten for her to practice her letters and numbers – she was pretending to be the teacher to her Papa, encouraging him to try writing his letters and complimenting him on a job well done. It was so much fun to watch! Recently she’s started wanting extra stories at night – after she reads her bedtime story to me (yes, she’s now at the point where Mama does not get to do the honor, she wants to read aloud instead of being read to – it’s quite enjoyable. Well, except when she decides she wants to ‘sing’ the book instead of just read it – then it gets a tad bit annoying…heh, heh!)

After she finishes reading (or singing) aloud her bedtime story, she then collects several of her stuffed animals for a ‘live action’ story. It’s quite entertaining, her grasp of the English language is quite impressive – I think I’m going to have to sneak a video camera into the room when she’s doing that, she’s come up with some very creative and interesting stories that seriously could make a great children’s book! LOL! Whenever she’s making up an elaborate story (complete with ‘Once upon a time’ and finishes with ‘The End’), making up a very creative song while attempting to play her child-sized guitar, or just any independent creative play she engages in on a daily basis, I marvel at her creativity and how imaginative she truly is.