Imaginative Play

[Msdunny]

Do your dck's engage in imaginative play? I seem to have kids who make messes (we talk A LOT about only one toy at a time, and not throwing toys around the room) and who want to come and tell me everything that is happening while they play. I have only been re-opened since mid January after a 6 year hiatus, but I just don't remember having to engage with their play as often. If I only have one in attendance, I definitely get it. And of course I sit and play with my toddlers and babies. But the 3 and 4 year olds? It is just amazing! They don't seem to know how to play 'let's pretend', which I remember saying all the time as a kiddo.

Maybe this should have gone on the venting thread.

[Ariana]

Depends on the kids for sure! Some kids can do it because they are left alone more to play. Others are used to constant adult interaction and direction and can’t have an imaginative thought to save their life...add electronics and tv and you have a problem. Any child who has been with me from 12 months can play but most others cannot.

[LittleExplorers]

My kiddos are very imaginative. I love it. I advertise as a nature based program with tons of outside time and little to no screen time. I think it might draw parents with the same style as me or maybe I am just lucky.

[Jupadia]

Most kids here do use there imaginations while playing. I do have one kid almost 4 who is horablie at playing. Given a chance he mostly just makes a mess (dumps baske) and tries to move on. He ends up staying in his center and arguing or just sitting when he is told to pick up before moving along. Hardly any time is actually spent playing with the object. Other will use the toys they play with and are talented with making messes but stop to play with toys.

[Blackcat31]

The more screen time a child gets is directly related to their imagination levels.

Like LittleExplorers said, I attract a certain type of parent and one of the things they all have in common is very little, if any TV time (as well as other electronics) for their family and/or children.

IME, it makes a big difference

[coloradoprovider]

imaginative play

I have a small group of 3 year olds who are great at imaginative play. I often hear them assign roles and then go on to make up their own stories about what they're doing. I love to hear their scenarios. I try to stay out of the way unless I have a prop idea (I'll ask "do you want . . .") that they can run with. If they want me to be a part of their story, I try to keep it to a minor role (I am a supporting actress to their "star" actor/actress) so the ideas are theirs. I also emphasize outdoor play and little screen time.

[LK5kids]

My mind always goes to “too much screen time”. That’s not akways the reason but it often is.

I was away from FCC for 18 years. Still in early childhood occupations but not child care ( except one year in 2013).

This past year I worked in a center with 3’s. I had some kids who never played with toys - period, much less “Let’s pretend”. They just wondered and did very little in the way of play.

My room wasn’t very well equipped and I brought in a large bag of toys and manipulatives each day. They always had new and interesting things to explore ( shared room for opening and closing. I couldn’t leave anything or it would have gone missing or gotten broken).

Now I have all under 2 kids and they play so well! So very engaged. It’s refreshing and fun to watch!

[Josiegirl]

My 5 yo dcg is very imaginative, plays well by herself. Not with others though as she has to be boss at all times. My 5 yo dcb has no clue, all he does is drive cars back and forth on the floors. I'll suggest he build roads or garages with blocks? He has no clue. :confused:
My 2-3's just want to dump, climb, draw on themselves, wreak havoc in general. My 21 mo loves the peace of playing by himself and can engage in puzzles, books, trains, blocks by himself.
Kids are all so different and I have no clue, myself, how to get the 2 yo's beyond the dumping, stealing toys, climbing everything in sight stage into the creative thinking and engage stage. I'm working on it but it's not changing anything yet. And it's causing so many issues.

[Msdunny]

I definitely agree with the 'too much screen time' thoughts. I don't allow any here, so I think they are lost when it comes to play time. One three year old quotes a Youtuber every time she pulls a toy out - "Today we are going to play with this ____________, so let's get started!" Every time! I am just so surprised at the change in kids. My last group before I closed were excellent imaginative players. Of course, they had been with me for years, so they had time to learn. And they were sibling groups. Maybe that makes a difference. All my dcks now are only children in the family, so I think there is a lot of adult attention and play.

My plan is to be outside at every opportunity. It has rained here pretty constantly since I opened. BUT WE WILL PLAY!! happyface

[Pestle]

I have two kids who don't do a lot of screen time. They engage in spontaneous narrative play. I have two kids who do a lot of screen time. They engage in narrative play, but it's only ever the same script, over and over and over. I'm not sure they're benefiting from the play as much as the other kids are. I feel like their brains are getting locked into the narrative they're being fed by the TV.

[Blackcat31]

While it's not new info, just recently I've heard alot more about the correlation to the rise in depression and anxiety in young adults that are products of the electronics age...

It's connecting people for sure but it's not connecting people on any type of authentic level or with any real substance.

Thus creating a feeling of emptiness and isolation.

It's sad really... but it's easy to see how it happened.
I wonder how or if it can be changed.

[Msdunny]

While it's not new info, just recently I've heard alot more about the correlation to the rise in depression and anxiety in young adults that are products of the electronics age...

It's connecting people for sure but it's not connecting people on any type of authentic level or with any real substance.

Thus creating a feeling of emptiness and isolation.

It's sad really... but it's easy to see how it happened.
I wonder how or if it can be changed.

I see young parents who I really consider really good parents, but they have purchased ipads for each child, and their littles (as young as 18 months) can too easily navigate the electronics. These are parents who are involved, caring, loving, spend time with their kids kind of folks. But just like television became a babysitter for my generation, I'm afraid electronics have become the newest form of childcare. I really belive they know it isn't best for their child, but it is easy, so...it becomes the norm. I left the kindergarten classroom this past fall, and it is even worse there. Those kids couldn't play in pretend centers. They all wanted computer time, and we would find kids in other centers standing, staring at the screens of their classmates who were on the computers. We are getting ourselves into a mess, I'm afraid.

[Pestle]

"Nurture Shock" cites a study showing that kids who watch "children's programming" end up with more antisocial behaviors than kids who watch general programming. Think about the values that Star Wars or other action/adventure shows instill, and the behaviors of the characters. Then think about the crappy, aggressive, insulting behavior of the children in kids' programming. Their shows seem low-stakes but they don't show cooperative behavior or kindness, until the twist at the end. The analysis of the study concluded that the kids were seeing the negative behaviors modeled at the beginning of the shows and imitating it, instead of learning the "moral" of the shows. No duh. How many of you would like all recordings of "Clifford" to spontaneously combust?

[Ariana]

So true Pestle! Kids programming is so crappy. We watch movies from Studio Ghibli from Japan...that is how hard it is to find good movies with actual plots from Hollywood. We also watch things from when I was a kid for the same reason. I also just subscribed to PureFlix to get movies that don’t feature mature themes like murder (think Like of Pets and Coco)!

A lot of studies coming in now correlating social media with suicide as well. I think the suicide has tripled since 2010 among teens. If ANYTHING else caused suicide to triple it would be banned outright. The people who devised these devices and apps wanted to condition people to use them. Conditioning is harder to get rid of than addiction and now they are worried. With my last iOS update they put in built in time limits etc. They want to pretend they are trying

Parenting is not what it used to be and kids are suffering...and society will eventually.

[Josiegirl]

Society is already suffering. Increased depression and suicide. But just think about all the posts we read on here, concerning kids who don't know how to work out problems, interact, create, imagine, even simply daydreaming is so good for a child's mind. Lack of sleep is another biggie, I truly think kids' brains are getting rewired or something because they can't put themselves to sleep, they get entertained instead of being forced to think/create/solve problems. Everybody has to be a winner. Or first. Or best. And it's still not enough. Kids' self-esteems are suffering, their ability to handle adversity is squashed. They're not facing life with real-life solutions to real-life problems. A lot of these school shooters, IMO, are begging to be noticed. And if it takes such a violent action to get them noticed....:confused:
It's ok to not be perfect or best or first. It's better to be a kind friend. My 5 yo dcg has to be #1, has to win at everything. Life is a contest. In every way. But it'll never be a happy existence because you can't win all the time. Kids have to learn it's okay just to be you..
Ok, off on a tangent here. The increase in media is just making this all worse. Parents snap pics constantly to post, every single adorable thing their child does. They check messages all the time to see who's seen it. Kids are seeing all this. How many friends on your FB friends list are really people you'd consider friends? Are they really that important in your life? Tell me, do people really have 600 friends?? All of this is done to fill a void in people's lives. But in doing so, everything has become so impersonal now.
Rambling. I know.