Imaginative Play

I always thought that the beautiful thing about imaginative play was that you could change the game to suit your needs or desires.  Well, that’s how it was when I was a child, but it seems that Boywonder and Tomboy play by different rules when their imagination drives their games.

I was drawn to the lounge room by the sounds of Tomboy screaming, where I found Boywonder running in circles around the room with both arms outstretched in front of him and a  ‘I’m really annoying my sister this time’ smile on his face.

Running behind him, screaming and crying as she tried desperately to catch him, was Tomboy.

‘What’s going on?’ I yelled over the top of Tomboy’s din.

‘He won’t let me get in his car!’ she wailed.

Instead of bursting his bubble by imagining her own car, getting in it and driving off, she was chasing after him, insisting on riding in his imaginary car. Maybe it was more about the power of getting him to stop and let her in the car; I don’t know. What I do know is that children don’t simply change the rules of their imaginary games to suit their wants/needs.

As Boywonder showed me one day, imaginary games are much more fun when you challenge yourself with them. He had set the garden chairs up in a line and made Mr T sit in the back seat, so Boywonder could drive him around. They visited the fish and chip shop and were on their way to pick up Boywonder’s imaginary friend. He jumped out of his driver’s seat and ran into the cubby. When he re-emerged he was holding hands with imaginary Sam and saying, ‘come on, it’s time to go.’

As Boywonder walked towards the garden-chair car, he suddenly stopped and looked around like he’d lost something.

‘What have you lost?’ I asked.

‘Where’d he go?’ replied Boywonder.

‘Who?’

‘Sam!’

Yep, apparently it’s possible to lose invisible, imaginary friends. After thirty seconds of searching for his lost friend, Boywonder found Sam and returned to the car, where Mr T was waiting.

And don’t think Mr T didn’t get involved in the imaginary play. He was reminding Boywonder to secure his seat belt and then leaning into the corners as Boywonder drove them home again. 

I’m glad I caught it all on video!