babysparkler Posted December 2, 2010 Share Posted December 2, 2010 (edited) Starting a new thread to comment on a quote from the Santa thread (so I don't hijack)... How do you encourage "fantasy" in your child's life? I'm with James Dobson on this topic... James Dobson: "I don't believe that those early, early fantasies really interfere with later Spiritual beliefs. I haven't seen any evidence of that, either in the life of my kids or in the lives of those I have had anything to do with. To allow a little bit of fantasy in a child's life enriches his intellectual life and I think he needs it. Children thrive on fantasy. It enriches our mental existence. Reality can be a pretty cold and hard place. I think children need the fantasy that Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and other childhood mythical creatures bring. We don't do Santa/Easter Bunny in our house, but I like to keep the "magic" of childhood alive where I can... I recently encouraged this "fantasy" by making a huge gingerbread man with the kids and cousins (we were staying with BIL/SIL on vacation). When they weren't looking the Gingerbread man "went missing" from the oven and we had a huge search for him that lasted a good while (just long enough for it to cool off completely:D). The kids ran around interviewing the family and finally discovered the Gingerbread man in SIL's car... apparently he was trying to get away:lol:. The whole event ended with frosting and eating the sly cookie! Ds10 was in on it, but the other kids are STILL trying to figure out the mystery. My FIL and I wrote a book that we "published" on Snapfish about the mystery, but being careful not to reveal the true story;) so that they can keep the magic of it all. They all have their suspicions, but my mouth is sealed and I just refer them to the book:lol:. Here is the book if you want to read... Some of the photos were staged... we don't always look that wierd! :) Edited December 2, 2010 by babysparkler Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dayle in Guatemala Posted December 2, 2010 Share Posted December 2, 2010 Lights, decorations, stories, songs (lots of music), traditions, lots of imagination are all ways that we have kept the magic alive during all holidays. The biggest thing is making events out of every day things. I try to do theme dinners along with movies. We have parties for crazy things with just our family or sometimes we invite people to join us--like Shark Week on Animal Planet. Anyway, that's how we do it and have done it. It doesn't cost much, and it keeps the fantasy in our family life. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parrothead Posted December 2, 2010 Share Posted December 2, 2010 Just because no one has seen one of the Little People for a long time does not mean they don't exist. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
babysparkler Posted December 2, 2010 Author Share Posted December 2, 2010 I try to do theme dinners along with movies. We have parties for crazy things with just our family or sometimes we invite people to join us--like Shark Week on Animal Planet. I love this idea! Just because no one has seen one of the Little People for a long time does not mean they don't exist. :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snickelfritz Posted December 2, 2010 Share Posted December 2, 2010 We read a lot of fantasy books. That's actually my preferred genre for adult literature, too. With the kids, it's: fairy tales, Dahl ( we are on a huge kick of reading his books... So fun), Peter Pan, etc... I have a current preference for British childrens lit. Their language is full of vocabulary and descriptions that are magical. Since we listen to much of it on audio book, with British actors reading, the girls also walk around putting on British accents. One side note of an example is a trip we took to San Francisco last year. We were on the bus and the girls had bags of cotton candy. A young British man chatted with them about their bags of "fairy floss." How much more fun is THAT than cotton candy? And we don't do Santa, tooth fairy, etc... either. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
annlaura Posted December 2, 2010 Share Posted December 2, 2010 Just because no one has seen one of the Little People for a long time does not mean they don't exist. :001_smile: Although my MIL swears she has seen a duendi or two in her house. ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parrothead Posted December 2, 2010 Share Posted December 2, 2010 :001_smile: Although my MIL swears she has seen a duendi or two in her house. ;) Well, there you go! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abbeyej Posted December 2, 2010 Share Posted December 2, 2010 Largely by staying out of the way. ;) I fill the kids' heads with stories (fairy tales and legends, children's books, etc) and songs... I make sure they have open-ended toys (a set of over-sized play silks got more use in our home than almost any other toy from the time my oldest was about 2-10; also wooden blocks; sticks and stones, etc, etc), costume pieces (wings and swords and shields and those same playsilks for capes and turbans and magic carpets and baby slings and aprons and...) and craft supplies (paper and scissors and tape and colored pencils)... And TIME. One of the great advantages of home schooling in the early years are the tremendous number of free hours when kids can cultivate their imaginative play. Times when the kids have invented restaurants and choreographed ballets and staged epic battles and saved magical creatures and created circuses... I'm not suggesting it's wrong to do the occasional big gesture as you described with the gingerbread man -- I think it sounds delightful! -- but day-to-day, I think staying out of the way is actually pretty useful. :) Some kids may need a bit of a boost before you abandon them to their creative/fantasy play -- but most only need some time and some unspecific tools that they can transform... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dawn in OH Posted December 2, 2010 Share Posted December 2, 2010 In our house it doesn't really need to be encouraged. My kids are all about fairies, unicorns, elves, etc. However, I think some of our visiting homeschool friends need to encourage it. I remember a day when a little 6 year old girl walked in my front door, looked at my oldest son, and the first thing out of her mouth before even saying hello was, "Fionn, there is no such thing as dragons." It was like being visited by little Susan Walker. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted December 3, 2010 Share Posted December 3, 2010 My mom did this for me, and I did it for dd when she was young: on some special nights, her dolls would "come alive." She'd find them in the morning in various places and poses, in the middle of activities such as cooking, reading, climbing shelves, sewing clothes, etc. I loved this as a child -- it was so magical. A couple of years ago when dd was about 12, she lost a toy dog at the San Francisco science museum and was beside herself (as an Aspie, she has a passionate attachment to objects). I wrote the museum but was terrified they'd never find it, so I bought a replacement dog and the nice guys at the UPS store helped me mail it to myself but with a pretend San Francisco sender address. Two weeks later the museum sent the original dog, which they had found somehow. I told dd this was obviously a case of multiple timelines and warps in space-time, in as Star-Trekky language as I could make up on the spot. She was so torn between belief and disbelief, it was wonderful to behold. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peela Posted December 3, 2010 Share Posted December 3, 2010 No encouragement necessary here either. We read lots of fantasy though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snickelfritz Posted December 3, 2010 Share Posted December 3, 2010 In our house it doesn't really need to be encouraged. My kids are all about fairies, unicorns, elves, etc. Older dd is into fairies. Younger dd declared fairies to be "lame." However, she likes unicorns. I had her speech evaluated for articulation issues, but they did a processing screening where she was supposed to name off as many animals as she could. Unicorn was one of her answers, which I thought was stinking cute. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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