The Importance of Imaginative Play

Last night I read an interesting article about the importance of imaginative play in early childhood education.

To quote the article, "A child's ability to fantasize helps later in life by fostering critical thinking, creative problem-solving skills and cooperation. This kind of play helps build leaders. When children are allowed free play time, when they are allowed the freedom to create and use their imaginations, they continually assess and evaluate, readjust, cooperate, learn via trial and error and they listen to each other. There's a close link between play and cognitive growth. "

"And children in today's society are bombarded with toys and games that can only be used for one intended purpose... that do little or nothing to encourage children to use their imaginations.- by Nancy Garvey (Kidding Around, January/February 2009)

This is one of the strengths of the preschool Amanda attends, and one of the reasons why it is so perfect for her. They do not spend time teaching the alphabet or numbers, which is perfectly fine with me. We can do that on our own time here at home.

Instead, her preschool is more science-based and they focus on discovery and hands-on activities. They also have a time set aside for dramatic play, which is Amanda's favorite part of the day. Cooking activities, tasting parties and nature walks are other things they do in a typical week.

During our initial ‘in home’ meeting with Amanda's preschool teacher, I  learned that Mrs. McCarthy often uses social behavior puppets ("Britney" and "Ricky") in the classroom to help teach interpersonal skills, appropriate behavior, social conflicts, etc.

Every now and then Amanda will tell me what "Britney" and "Ricky" did that day. Apparently one afternoon there was a performance in which one of the puppets had been hugging all of the children... and the other puppet finally said,"I like you, but I don't like it when you hug me."

Although it was never confirmed, I think I can guess who and what inspired this particular puppet performance, since Amanda could definitely be described as a "hugger."

* *
For Christmas, Amanda and Eva received a set of eight multicultural puppet children - 4 girls, 4 boys. Knowing Amanda's propensity for, and talent in drama, I had looked into buying a Puppet Theater. But when I realized how expensive they were, I couldn't justify shelling out that kind of money and filed the idea to the back of my head.

After reading the above article and realizing that both girls could benefit from this type of play, I was inspired to make our own theater using some discarded boxes. What a perfect activity for an otherwise free Friday!

Now, I must share Reason #101 why I love my husband... and why my daughters love their daddy.

When I told Dave about my idea this morning and explained my design plan, he offered to do it himself before leaving for work. He whipped out an Exacto knife, some duct tape and went to town.


In mere minutes, he was finished! And as usual, his design looked much better, not to mention more durable, than what I had envisioned in my own head.


Once Dave was finished with the construction phase, I added some white paper so the girls could decorate it and give it a more personal touch.

Eva took care of the interior decorating while Amanda worked on the exterior.

I was surprised and delighted at how excited both Amanda and Eva were about this project. They had so much fun working together!


I carried our Puppet Theater to the "Green Room", which is essentially our glorified playroom. The girls set up chairs and strollers for their make-believe audience, and Amanda predictably fell into the role of Stage Manager. I guess the article was right about the "building leaders" part.

"Young lady, please be seated."



Oh, and at the very end of the video where Eva falls off her chair? Don't worry.. she wasn't hurt. Mishaps like this are a regular occurrence; they don't even phase her.

Once on stage, Eva immediately followed Amanda's lead and figured out just what to do.

Performance #1 starred Amanda as The Parrot and Eva as The Koala. (So much for the multicultural human puppets!)

Here's what you would have seen, had you been lucky enough to secure a ticket to the show.



Next it was my turn to do a puppet show, and I have to say... it was a lot of fun!

I staged my own "Britney and Ricky" drama, although I called my puppets "Britney" and "Rosalina", due to the gender/ethnicity of the puppets I was assigned. There wasn't much of a plot other than Britney being portrayed as the shy girl. (There is a girl in Amanda's class who is painfully shy, and I wanted to see how Amanda would handle such a situation.)

Immediately Amanda approached the stage, hugged Britney and said gently,"It's okay to be shy."

Yep, that's my empathetic girl.

I can definitely understand the value in social behavior puppets as well as imaginative play. I have a feeling our Puppet Stage will be getting a lot of use.