Let's imagine a scene: A beautiful children's room full of brightly colored toys, and in the center, an adorable baby playing with a hilarious ... clothes peg.
Reality or fiction? The purest of truths.
We spend huge amounts of money on toys that do wonders, in which you press a button and the doll sings, jumps, dances and teaches you English. And all for what? So that our son ends up playing with the box.
But why would they want a toy that does everything for them? Where is grace? Children are the greatest source of imagination in the world, and many of the toys we find in stores today do not enhance this gift, quite the contrary. And the imagination is basic for a correct development of the child and the base of all his creativity. As Albert Einstein said: "Imagination is more powerful than knowledge“.
If we invest so much effort in giving the best education to our children, why don't we do the same with their imagination?
If you want to help your baby take advantage of all his imagination, you have to offer him the simplest possible toys, materials with which he can exploit all his wits and create worlds, stories, situations and games himself. We propose you some ideas that always give good results:
The bread basket of treasures
A classic that is sure to provide your little hours and hours of fun. It is suitable for babies who are already feeling lonely. How does it work? Super easy: we just sit our baby on the floor and put the treasure basket in front of him. And that's it! He will take care of everything else. In addition to being very effective, you can prepare it yourself in ten minutes. Take a bread basket, a basket, or a similar container, and fill it with everyday objects that can be found at home: a metal spoon, a wooden spoon, a ball of wool, a strainer, a net sponge, rattles tied to a rope, a brush, hair curlers ... any object will do. The important thing is to offer different textures, measures, weights, colors, etc. Very important! We have to make sure that there are no small pieces that can come loose with which the child can choke, remember that safety is the most important thing.
How many tales!
The library is one of the best places to let your imagination run wild, so it is advisable to start visiting it from an early age. Choose bright, colorful stories with eye-catching pictures that catch children when opening the first page. In addition, we can take advantage of the fact that they still cannot read to invent the most original and incredible stories that you want. Maybe this time instead of testing the princesses with a pea, the story is that of a pea so hard that no one could crush him until the world's heaviest princess arrived. Imagination to the power!
Fabrics everywhere
With simple scraps of colored fabrics we can fully stimulate the imagination of our little ones. Hang some strips from the ceiling to the ground and you will see how in the eyes of your little ones the room turns into a fabulous magical forest, or tie a blanket from the sofa to the table and what an Indian cabin! The little ones will have a great time playing with smaller scraps of shiny fabrics or with very striking prints. The classic game of hiding behind a scarf never disappoints, and surely they love to disappear by magic just by putting a piece of cloth on their eyes.
Let the light be made!
Have you heard of light tables? It is a fantastic resource for babies and older children based on Reggio Emilia pedagogy that stimulates the sense of sight like no other. We can play on the light table with any translucent material, with silhouettes, making transfers, drawing with sand, etc. It's a matter of letting your imagination run wild to create stories, games, or simply being captivated by the power of light in the midst of darkness. Attention, parents, because the light table tends to appeal to both young and old 😉 If you do not have a light table we can simply lock ourselves in a dark room with colored lanterns and filters, light or fluorescent objects or play games Chinese shadows, fun and laughs guaranteed!
You see that to stimulate the imagination of our little ones it is not necessary to spend a lot of money on toys, we just have to find the right material or resource and always be by their side to observe their evolution and guide them along the way. And who knows? Maybe we can also stimulate ours a little, which would not hurt us, right? 😉
