Happy 2013!!
Gosh it feels like an age since I’ve sat down to write a blog post! We had a wonderfully relaxing festive season but now it is time to embrace the new year.
Since the 1st January we have been busy, busy, busy… Daddy has been pouring his heart and soul into getting our veggie garden going (which I have to say is beginning to look amazing!). I have been organizing our house into a more, well, organised space and getting our first term of “school” ready to go for the start of our new school year next week. My beautiful little girl has been waist deep in soft toys, plastic animals and dress-up clothes 
It is Livvy’s beautiful imagination that is the foundation of this post, I shall explain……
Although I have been busy making sure we are ready for school next week, it is also important for Livvy and I to have our quality playtime together. Now whilst clearing out I came across some boxes that I used during our last house move…..hmmmm….instead of throwing out the boxes I wondered how we could use them – Livvy came up with the idea of creating a house for her plastic animals – brilliant my little “up-cycler”!!
Last year I invested in a product called Makedo (click on the link and it will take you to the website!) - it is the most fabulous product, great for creativity and thinking outside the box (excuse the pun!). So, armed with our Makedo bits and cardboard boxes we set to work!
The finished product is a valuable tool in imaginative play…. but lets not forget all the other aspects that also come into play when embarking on these wonderful projects….
- Problem solving – working out the best way to construct our “zoo” so that it works with the Makedo components
- Fine motor skills – when actually using the Makedo bits (putting the re-clips and lock hinges onto the cardboard so the it looks like a “zoo”!!)
So why is imaginative play so important in the early years of childhood? Well, it is an integral part of cognitive development. The definition of cognitive development is: “Increasing complexity of awareness, including perceiving, conceiving, reasoning, and judging, through adaptation to the environment and assimilation of information.” (education.com) Many years of research has gone into the benefits of imaginative play, here are just a few of the benefits:
- Development of language, from increasing vocabulary, creating sentence structures to spoken grammar
- Being able to express both positive and negative emotions
- Imaginative play can most importantly enhance a child’s creativity that may stay with them for the rest of their lives.
For further reading of this extraordinarily interesting article click in this link: Psychology Today
We have wholeheartedly embraced Livvy’s imagination, for me (although I may be biased!) it is one of her most endearing qualities…we never know what animal persona she will adopt upon waking in the morning or what fun adventures we will encounter during the day…a child’s imagination is limitless and one that should be treasured.
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Fabulous first blog of the New Year, so good to have you girls back!