A story to spark your child’s imagination: "The Great Space Adventure."

A story to spark your child’s imagination:

(This story was used to introduce some science experiments, some creative activities and super imaginative play!)

The Great Space Adventure

Joey and Selina were tired of playing with their toys. Their blue plastic swords, fancy play guitar and shiny scooter seemed old and boring. Joey said: “Let’s do something different!”  Selina said: “Let’s watch TV!”  They sat down on the mat and tried to watch TV for a while – but there were the same old boring cartoons!

Joey said: “I know, let’s go outside in the garden. There must be something new to play with out there.”

Selina ran outside to find something new to play with. She looked at the swing. “I’m tired of swinging.” She said. Then she looked at the slide, and said: “I’m tired of sliding.”

Joey searched and search all over the garden. There were the same old trees and bushes, the same old driveway, the same old swing and slide.

Joey sat under a big tree and played a game on his iphone. “Even this is getting boring!” Selena agreed: “I want to do something, not just sit and look at a small screen!”

“We need to have an adventure”, said Joey. “That’s what I want to do – Have an adventure!”

“What kind of adventure? asked Selina.

Joey lay on the grass and stared at the sky. “I don’t know. Maybe we can be astronauts? Maybe we can pretend to fly off into space in a big red and blue rocket and have a wonderful adventure!”

Selina lay down on the grass next to Joey and stared at the sky too. It was late in the afternoon, and the sun was setting, streaking the sky with red and orange. As the sky became darker, Joey and Selina saw the stars start to twinkle, one by one, until there were hundreds of stars twinkling at them.

Joey said: “Look at all the twinkling stars! I think they want us to come and play with them. They are winking and twinkling up in the sky!”

Then slowly a wonderful thing happened!

A huge round silvery moon slowly rose up over the hill.

Joey and Selena jumped up and stared at the moon.

It was a magic moon!

Joey and Selena felt themselves growing very tall and very strong – suddenly they had super hero powers!

They felt fantastic! Their muscles grew hard and powerful, they could run faster than a speeding car, jump higher than a house, and pick up an elephant in one hand!

Even their names changed.

(Joey became Zan and Selena became Jayna. A brother and sister Super-Hero team:  both brave and tough, fearing nothing and together ready to go off on a great adventure!)

“I know, we must go up in a rocket and visit the moon!”

Zan and Jayna went to collect two special things they would need to visit the moon.

1. First: A Magical passport.

·        This magical passport looked just like a small white sheet of paper with magical markings on it. All Zan and Jayna had to do, was figure out how to make a hole in the passport - big enough for both of them to fit through.

·        Once they had stepped through the hole in the magical passport, they would be able to jump on the red and blue rocket and blast off to the moon!

2. Second: A bowl of special alien food.

·        This special alien food was a gift for the little green men that lived in the craters on the moon.

·        Zan and Jayna had to make the blue slime first, and take it with them in the rocket to the moon.

Then, once they had made the disgusting blue slime, and packed it into a bag, they made a hole in the magical passport and stepped through it. They were now able to jump into the rocket and zoom off to the moon!

All the little green men on the moon were so happy to see Zan and Jayna!

They loved the blue slime!

Zan and Jayna had a great adventure flying through space and meeting the weird little green men on the moon!

They didn’t eat any of the blue slime though – it was poisonous to Earth children – even Super-Hero brothers and sisters!

What a wonderful adventure!

(See our previous newsletter for the slime recipe! Our Buzzi Brains kids loved it!!!)

Why is Imaginative Play important?

Why is imaginative play important?

• ·         Toys can stunt your child’s cognitive and emotional development.
• ·         Imagination (fantasy play, make-believe & role-play) are powerful tools for building self –discipline.
• ·         Poor self-regulation is associated with high dropout rates, drug use and crime.

The following article was written by Janet Beyrooti, Headmistress of Curro Aurora Nursery School and director of “Pro-Ed Training” (Accredited Early Childhood Development College.)

It's interesting to me that when we talk about play today, the first thing that comes to mind is toys; whereas, during the 19th century, play would be thought of as an activity, rather than an object.

During the school holidays I read Howard Chudacoff’s most recent research which focuses on the history of childhood. He argues that for most of human history what children did when they played was roam in packs large or small, more or less unsupervised, and engaged in freewheeling imaginative play. They were pirates and princesses, aristocrats and action heroes. Basically, says Chudacoff, they spent most of their time doing what looked like nothing much at all!

I am sure most parents and teachers can remember the days when we improvised play, whether it was outdoors, in the street or even in a friend’s back garden. We improvised our own play; we regulated our play and we made up our own rules.

During the second half of the 20th century, play changed radically. Instead of children spending their time in autonomous shifting make-believe, they were supplied with ever more specific toys and predetermined scripts for play. Essentially, instead of playing pirates with a tree branch they played Star Wars with a toy light saber. Chudacoff called this the commercialization and co-optation of child's play — a trend which begins to shrink the size of children's imaginative space.

However, commercialization is not the only reason imagination came under siege. In the second half of the 20th century South African parents became increasingly concerned about safety, and were driven to create play environments that were secure and could not be penetrated by threats of the outside world.

Moving into secure housing areas, keeping children indoors — these create safe environments for children.

Parents also did something more, middle-class parents increasingly worried about academic achievement, therefore offering to enrich a child's mind, forgetting to let the child play.

Evidently the way that children spend their time has changed.

A growing number of psychologists believe that these changes in what children do has also changed children’s cognitive and emotional development.

These changes in the type of play children engage in have seriously affected self-regulation, academic success and emotional development!

So why is it important for your child to practice good self-regulation?

We know that children's capacity for self-regulation has diminished. A recent study replicated a study of self-regulation first done in the late 1940s, in which psychological researchers asked children ages 3, 5 and 7 to do a number of exercises. One of those exercises included standing perfectly still without moving.

The 3-year-olds couldn't stand still at all; the 5-year-olds could do it for about three minutes, and the 7-year-olds could stand pretty much as long as the researchers asked.

In 2001, researchers repeated this experiment. But, psychologist Elena Bodrova at Mid-Continent Research for Education and Learning says, the results were very different.

Today's 5-year-olds were acting at the level of 3-year-olds 60 years ago, and today's

7-year-olds were barely approaching the level of a 5-year-old 60 years ago,"  Bodrova explains. "So the results were very sad."

Why Sad?

Because self-regulation is incredibly important! Poor self-regulation is associated with high dropout rates, drug use and crime. In fact, good self-regulation is a better predictor of success in school than a child's IQ.

Children who are able to manage their feelings and pay attention are better able to learn. Self-regulation predicts effective development in virtually every domain.

The reason make-believe is such a powerful tool for building self-discipline is because during make-believe, children engage in what's called private speech. Children talk to themselves about what they are going to do and how they are going to do it.

Children who are good self-regulators are able to remain focused on actual lessons and can easily sit at a desk for long periods.

Parents and teachers who encourage play with only objects will certainly inhibit imaginative play. Children are not given the chance to practice policing themselves. When they are given these opportunities, the results are clear and self-regulation improves.

Rules for Play:

·         Play must be in a safe environment.

·         Play must not always be with high-tech toys.

·         Play must have a purpose.

·         Play can be with cardboard boxes, twigs and all that nature brings!

·         And play can just be running around the garden pretending…….