storytelling & fantasy

I have been reading a book called, "Bringing the Story Home" by Lisa Lipkin. It talks about the importance of bringing storytelling into everyday life. She offers many suggestions and ideas, which I have used as a starting point to go off on my own. The past couple of days I have been asking my children questions while they are doing normal daily things such as eating or brushing their teeth.

Me- "If you could chose to be the bread, peanut butter, plate, or knife, which would you choose?"

A- "I would be the bread!"

E- "I'm the knife!"

Me- "Plate, how does it feel to have a sandwich on top of you?"

A- "Warm, like a blanket. And I can eat the leftover crumbs."

Me- "What about you knife? Do you enjoy spreading peanut butter and cutting bread in half?"

E- giggles histerically

We talked later while brushing our teeth about how our toothbrushes feel while in our mouths. We decided it's like have a nice massage and that maybe it tickles a little. We also wondered what they talk about when we're not in the room. My oldest said that they discuss ways to escape. "I caught mommy and daddy's toothbrushes kissing this morning", I tell them as we all break out in embarrassed giggles. At lunch today my youngest pretended that his edamame were at the playground and his throat was the slide. After lunch I loaded up the dishwasher and we talked about how it must be like a going through a car wash. Or maybe like visiting a water park.

Adding story telling into our everyday lives has caused us to laugh more and is expanding our imaginations. Both of which are very good things. :)

Later my youngest and I build a castle for the Star Wars guys and turned an empty storage container (that had contained the blocks) into a boat. He was the captain and I became a mermaid. We were suddenly surrounded by crocodiles and also found another man ("A") who had fallen overboard and so we rescued him with our raft (the container lid). Eventually our ship came to dry land, where we were finally safe from the wind, waves, and crocodiles. The three of us came across what we thought was an abandoned castle, but instead found a tiny tribe of people living inside. They feared us because to them we appeared to be giants. Eventually we made peace with the small tribe and an injured crocodile (I somehow always seem to morph into different characters). Together we explored the island and then rested after our busy adventure came to an end for the day.

I believe that nurturing our children's imaginations is so important. And in turn, our children help to nurture our own adult imaginations and allow us to enter back into childhood again with them for a short time. As a parent it is often hard to find the time or energy to stop what we're doing and just be in the moment with our children, allowing ourselves to let go and get caught up in a world of fantasy and play. But, I am realizing the older I get how important it is to try my best to stay as young as I can for as long as possible. Although I finally broke down and bought some wrinkle cream yesterday, I really don't mind having a few laugh lines. :)