Women Personality and Mental Health

“I’m bored mommy. There is nothing to do.”
Are you hearing that from your child too often? Perhaps they are lacking a vivid imagination. This is something they are born with, but can lose it if it is not encouraged.

Here are five ways to encourage imagination in a young child.

1. Turn the TV Off
Does this one need an explanation?

2. Buy Simpler Toys
If it requires batteries, do not buy it – a blunt comment, but the simpler the better.

How many of today’s parents (or grand parents) played with simple items like Popsicle sticks and small toy cars. Clean, dry, and save the Popsicle sticks. Then, on rainy days, use them to outline roads on the floor. Once the roads have been used to outline the city, out come the cars, which are then driven through the streets, and parked in driveways and parking lots.

Go to a dollar store and buy simple toys. Popsicle sticks, building blocks, toy cars and trucks, plastic animals for zoos and farms, etc. Save the small plastic containers from yogurt and use them to build big walls. Then, knock the walls over with a soft sponge ball.

3. Encourage Drawing
Encourage your child to draw pictures. If a supply is available, bring home used paper from work (making sure there is no sensitive information on the printed side) and make sure your house always has a good supply of crayons and markers (also from the dollar store). On some occasions, draw with them, and other times let them draw on their own. Make positive comments when your children bring the finished work to you. Ask them questions about the objects in the drawing, as this encourages story telling.

4. Encourage Make Believe Play
Whatever happened to allowing children to play make believe? As if we adults never think that way!
Provide simple “props” for your children. For example, obtain a basic child sized table and four chairs. This will become the focal point for many activities. Your children will use that to play home based scenarios, and at other times it will be their office.

5. Read to Them
One reason many children become good readers is that their parents read to them frequently. As you read, add inflections and different pitches to your voice, to imitate the characters in the story. Ask your children to describe what they think the characters and the scene look like. This can then lead to drawings. At times, you will find them acting out the stories during their make believe play.

Conclusion
These are just five tips to get you started. Give your child a variety of experiences, preferably hands on. Then, encourage them to imagine what it would be like for them to be in the scene. There will be many amazing benefits from an increased imagination. The first of these will be a child who does not get bored as easily.