Steady Mom

4 Ways to Encourage Imagination

The following guest post is written by Paula of Motherhood Outloud.

On a recent beautiful fall afternoon, I sat in the driveway with my two girls, who were happily playing in a plastic container filled with sand.  The 19-month-old was stirring “soup” in a small bowl while her 4 1/2 year old sister poured “slop” into her bucket to feed her pig, Wilbur.

Few things are more fun than watching your children’s imaginations in full swing.  Indeed, imagining seems to come naturally for most kids.  And it’s a huge asset for any child. 

Imaginative kids are usually better at independent play and entertaining themselves, (and who doesn’t like that?) and they are also creative problem solvers.  Thankfully there are lots of things we as parents can do to foster and encourage an active, healthy imagination in our growing kids.

First, try to have toys that are open-ended. 

Items like blocks, which can be a castle one day and a farm the next, are a great example of this.  A tent might be a bear cave or a secret clubhouse or a cozy reading nook.  Invest in toys that make kids do most of the work of play (i.e. toys that don’t provide sounds and actions for them).

Sand and water tables, Play-Doh, and even a bucket of dried beans all have unlimited potential when placed in the hands of a child.

Second, try to plan activities that are open-ended. 

When doing arts and crafts with your children, don’t always have an activity where the end product has to look like the one in the picture.  Instead, give them empty paper towel tubes and see what they can make.  A tower?  Binoculars?  A sword?  

Encourage free painting and coloring times, save empty shoe boxes and let them decorate and create their own treasure chest.  There are tons of great craft ideas on the internet and in books.  But don’t get too caught up in the end result.  Allow your child to express their creativity by leaving the product mainly up to them.

Third, read, read, read! 

I know there are a million and one articles out there on the importance of reading to our children, but it is so important that it bears repeating.  Good books and stories expand children’s worlds and build a schema of characters, places, time periods and situations to which they might not otherwise be exposed.

Finding good literature for your kids can be difficult when faced with the endless shelves of titles in the local bookstore or library, but there are lots of good resources to help.  Simple Mom has a great recommendation list for the preschool crowd.  There is also a great list here, which recommends books by grade level, for preschool through high school.

One of my favorite resources is The Book Tree, which recommends books for different age groups and gives you a brief summary of each title.  The most important thing is to find great books that both you and your children enjoy and then devour them on a daily basis!

Finally, model imagination for your children. 

One of the best things about having young kids is that you can act completely silly and no one looks at you strangely!  So, make a point to pretend with your kids.  Throw bed sheets over the dining room table and make a fort, put on a puppet show, make mudpies, and above all teach your kids that an imagination is a wonderful gift not to be wasted!

What are some of the ways in which you encourage your child’s imagination?

***Paula Nix is a mother of 2 little girls and wife of one great husband.  In addition to teaching her own children, she also teaches other homeschool students part-time.   She blogs about living intentionally as a mom at her site, Motherhood Outloud.***

My Little Girl

This post was originally published on January 25, 2009.

This weekend Trishna and I spent some 'girl time' at a local children's museum. Every room had a different theme: construction, music, numbers, nature. Each one contained plenty of scope for the imagination.

But our favorite by far was an exact replica of the room from the classic book Goodnight Moon. You know how, as a kid, you were convinced that the settings in books and movies really existed? And if you could just get there, you'd become part of the action?

(I remember feeling this way about the yellow brick road in Wizard of Oz.) Well, the Goodnight Moon room made that fantasy a reality for my little girl.

Watching Trishna explore, I couldn't help but reflect on the years she didn't get to do the normal stuff that goes along with childhood. 

A little girl shouldn't spend the first four years of her life in an orphanage.

And after four years how can you, my girl, learn what it means to have a Mommy and Daddy?

Of course it is hard to trust, when you've always had to protect and guard your fragile heart alone.

You've built walls for self-preservation you no longer need. But once they've been constructed, it's tough even for love to tear them down.

My little girl, I wish I could have been with you those four years.

To pick you up as a baby when you cried. To watch you take your first steps. To hear you speak your first words.

My little girl, I will never, ever leave you. You will never be abandoned again. You are loved.

And I can't wait until the day you finally start believing that.

That day is coming, my love.

And I'll still be here when it arrives.

Moms' 30-Minute Blog Challenge

Photo by Wolfgang Staudt

It seems fitting to the spirit of the challenge that I am blogcationing today. But don't let that stop you from linking up below!

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Thanks for joining in the Moms' 30-Minute Blog Challenge. You can read more about it here.

In the spirit of the challenge, take a little time to visit the links of fellow bloggers - but not too much time! Say it with me - "Only 30 Minutes!"

Do you have a 30-minute post you'd like to share? Link up below! Make sure your post links back to this post on Steady Mom, and that your link on MckLinky goes directly to your 30-minute post - no general home pages, please.

Please note that the links will close at 9pm EST on Tuesday, in order to avoid any spammers.

Thankful for Simon :: A Miraculous Birth Story

The following is a guest post written by new parents Anna and Benjamin Story.

Vanuatu is a beautiful island paradise, a great holiday destination and our home for the past three years. It’s a great place to live and even raise a family, but it’s definitely not an ideal place for giving birth to a 25 ½ week premature baby. Yet that’s what happened to me on 31st July 2009.      

I went to bed that night with what I thought were cramps and awoke at 2:30 a.m. to find my pajama pants soaked in blood. I quickly woke up my husband, Benjamin, and asked him to help. I was too in shock to be scared, but I knew something was very wrong.  We rushed to the hospital.

A young woman asked if I had any contractions, and I realized I was still having cramps. She gave me a pill to stop labor, and I was also given a shot of steroids for my baby’s lungs in the event that he arrived that day.       

The next few hours were spent waiting to see if the medication to stop the contractions would work. At 5:00 a.m. my last dose was given but my contractions hadn’t stopped.

I was thinking how my baby was coming too early and the Vanuatu hospital didn’t have the equipment for a premature baby.  I also felt guilty, and kept wondering what I had done to go into premature labor.       

Around 7:30 a.m. my contractions got more intense and were about two minutes apart. I thought someone should check to see if I was dilating, but they were waiting for the doctor to arrive.  Finally, my husband told them the baby was ready to come.

Everything happened very quickly after that - before I knew it, my baby boy was lying on my stomach. Since he was so small, the midwives didn’t think he had a chance to live.

Our boy let out a tiny cry and we were surprised as he had first seemed so lifeless. They wrapped him in blankets and gave him to Benjamin to keep warm.  All I could say was, “He’s so small!  It’s so sad!” My husband stood there crying and holding our baby.             

The hospital wasn’t equipped for premature babies, and the incubator wouldn’t heat up properly, so Simon was placed into the incubator on hot water bottles. He continued to receive oxygen through a small tube near his nose.            

During this time, part of me wanted to spend every moment with Simon - thinking perhaps it would be his last. The other part of me wanted to stay away and not get too attached, in case he didn’t make it.

But most of my time was spent sitting near him, encouraging him. “Keep breathing honey, you’re doing so good, baby!” is a phrase I repeated a hundred times that day.      

Sometime around noon, Simon was added to our insurance and we were cleared to fly to Brisbane, Australia. At one point Simon had to be resuscitated, but he quickly began breathing again and things looked hopeful.

The ETA for the rescue plane was 19:30 and we continued to pray and cry and hope. At 19:00 we heard the plane had landed - at that moment Simon stopped breathing for the second time. For the next half hour, until the Australian medical team arrived, Simon had to be resuscitated.

I was grateful for the nurse and doctor keeping him alive, and I thought he just had to make it because he had lasted this long. At 19:30, to everyone’s relief, the doctor and nurse from Australia’s Hospital arrived!      

We were all amazed at the technology they brought: a portable incubator with various monitors and gadgets, which looked quite out of place in the bare and simple hospital room.      

We drove to the airport where the crew waited for us on the runway. Benjamin and I were both allowed to accompany Simon in the medical plane. I was so relieved to be headed to Australia, and so exhausted from the day’s events, that I slept the entire way.      

As I write, at 35 weeks corrected and weighing 2.2 kg (5 lbs), Simon is doing incredibly well. At day 42 (32 weeks corrected) he came off CPAP and moved from NICU to special care five days later. After a couple of days in special care Simon reached 1.8 kg (4 lbs) and was moved into an open cot.  

He is now off of all monitors, which means the doctors are confident of him breathing on his own, and don't need to keep such a close eye on him.  

The only thing left to do before Simon can come out of hospital is to establish a regular feeding routine. Up until now he has continued to feed through a nasal gastric tube, on a 3 hourly schedule. Simon is slowly learning the art of breastfeeding, and we look forward to leaving the hospital soon.

My husband and I have felt immensely supported by friends and family from around the world. Even people we don’t know have emailed to tell us they heard our story and have been praying for our little boy.

(Jamie's note: Thanks for sharing your amazing birth story with us, Anna and Ben. You are all in our prayers as well!)

Inspiration for Your Weekend

Photo by Kivanc Nis

- 5 Great Things About Having Small Children @ Motherhood Outloud

- Transform Email from Stressful to Useful @ Simple Mom

- Why We Homeschool @ Mt. Hope Chronicles

- Beauty from Ashes @ The Creative Mama

- The Modern Father @ infinitelearners.com

In keeping with my blogging resolutions, I'll be enjoying a week of vacation from blogging next week. But never fear, I have many guest posts prepared, and the 30-Minute Blog Challenge will still happen here on Tuesday!

Have a wonderful weekend!