“At a child’s birth, if a mother could ask a fairy godmother to endow it with the most useful gift, that gift would be curiosity.”
January 24, 2014
Children come into the world breathing out questions, full of curiosity and stories build on their curiosity, grow their imaginations and expand their capacity to think creatively. It stands to reason that Eleanor Roosevelt said, “At a child’s birth, if a mother could ask a fairy godmother to endow it with the most useful gift, that gift would be curiosity.”
The imaginary friends children create is an endearing aspect of childhood. The pleasurable moments these imaginary friends offer would seem to be reason enough for their existence but we have come to see some of the far-reaching benefits of imaginary friends on literacy.
A study has recently found that children who had an imaginary friend tended to provide a richer narrative when asked to retell a story compared to those who did not. Specifically, their stories tended to include more descriptors, dialogue, character names, temporal-locative-causal details, and more verbatim recall. Interestingly enough, these two groups did not differ in their vocabulary ability, nor did they differ in their ability to comprehend stories. What seems to be the case is that highly imaginative children, the kind who are likely to conjure up imaginary friends with detailed and original characters, are also better storytellers despite equivalent language abilities to their peers who lack such imagination. It is this capacity for rich fantasy, then, that might make a child a good storyteller; the kind of child who might later grow up to become a successful fiction author.
Just in case you have lost touch with the child inside of you, reading Come Away from the Water, Shirley, by John Burningham will put you back in that enchanting world of imaginary friends and adventures. This charming books looks at what goes on in a young girl’s imagination during an ordinary trip to the beach.Reading books to children that celebrate curiosity and the imagination is a precious gift that every child deserves.
A New Year’s Resolution Worth Keeping—Make 2014 the year you read or reread Zora Neale Hustron
January 7, 2014
Zora Neale Hurston (1891-1960) , a writer closely associated with the Harlem Renaissance, made such a statement during her lifetime but she was buried in an unmarked grave in a pauper’s field, where she lay in obscurity until another young writer, Alice Walker, decided to take it upon herself to bring Hurston’s body of work […]
The world is a better place because people dare to ask the difficult questions.
January 1, 2014
I believe s good way to start off a New Year is with a thought that both inspires and motivates. I want to pay tribute to Nelson Mandela and it turns out that his birth name gives me such an opportunity. Nelson Mandela’s birth name was Rolihlahla, which in the Xhosa language means, “pulling the […]
Give children the gift of your time and attention
December 22, 2013
There are tremendous benefits for children who attend high quality preschool programs; “they learn better, behave better, live healthier and earn more for the rest of their lives.” These findings come from the 1962-67 Perry Preschool Project study that followed children in the programs through the decades and into their 40’s. However we also know […]
Parents can help children cope with bullies
December 15, 2013
I am in favor of whatever it takes to combat bullying. A recent article in the San Francisco Chronicle spoke of how schoolyard bullies have been around forever, but the advent of social networks have made the problem much larger. Parents can play an important role in preparing children to resist being bullied and becoming a […]
