OBJECTIVE: To discover ways to stir the imagination of children.
INSPIRATIONAL QUOTES:
"It is impossible to reproduce history except through the imagination."
"Mothers who love your children, do not set them too soon to the study of history; let them dream while they are young." --Edouard Laboulaye "We have this extraordinary human power . . . the power of imagination. We take it totally for granted. " --Sir Kenneth Robinson “Material facts are good enough for him. Until it comes to religion. And then, suddenly, the child who has been forbidden to believe in Jack the Giant Killer must believe in Goliath and David. There are no fairies, but you must believe that there are angels. The magic sword and the magic buckler are nonsense, but the child must not have any doubts about the breastplate of righteousness and the sword of the Spirit. What spiritual reaction do you expect when, after denying all the symbolic stories and legends, you suddenly confront your poor little Materialist with the Most Wonderful story in the world?" -- Edith Nesbit
"If you wish your child to be intelligent, read him fairy tales. If you wish him to be more intelligent, read him more fairy tales." --Albert Einstein
"There is a peculiar charm about the classic myths that gives them special teaching power." --Edward St. John
"The child who is made familiar with the old mythology by means of stories and verse, holds the key of understanding to the countless allusions of the world's best literature." |
"We are warned . . . that it is time to avoid mechanical methods in schools. Otherwise the great result of education will be sacrificed. Already the finger of the wise is pointed to the place where modern popular elementary education seems to break down. It breaks down in the cultivation of the faculty which childhood is often said to possess in excess--Imagination."
"We cannot give Imagination to another, but we may arrest its development; and where it is ignored or suppressed, all intellectual life must quickly decline and perish. Now, as of old, wherever for one reason or another, there is no vision, the people perish." (Taken from this month's Mother's Learning Library book.) 
"We must lay up a stock of enthusiasm in our youth,
or else we shall reach the end of our journey with an empty heart, for we lose a great many of them along the way." --A French story-teller "Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.” --Neil Gaiman, paraphraising G.K. Chesterton |
WATCH:
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LISTEN:
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ARTICLES:
THIS MONTH'S MOTHER'S LEARNING LIBRARY SELECTION: IMAGINATION
Read the pdf version here. Fairy tales and other Imaginative stories are fuel to the imagination. So in this month's reading selection, I gathered thoughts from our storytelling friends of a hundred years ago on Fairy Tales, Greek mythology and The Arabian Nights. They'll walk you through why they matter, where they came from and they will give you suggestions for using them with your children. Following their thoughts, I included an essay on Imagination. It's not light reading, but you'll find a lot of good ideas to chew on. This push against the intellectual dominance and 'machination' of our schools has been going on for a long time. You may be surprised to find that they were talking about the same things in education a hundred years ago that we are talking about today. Finally, I included a few selections from a book about Education Through the Imagination. Again, it's not light reading, but I think you'll find many worthwhile thoughts to ponder. |
Nature is also a wonderful classroom for the Imagination to flourish. I happened upon this gem of a book on the way to looking for something else, and even if you don't have time to read the whole book, I hope you'll read the Introductory chapter and the first couple of chapters of her book and consider the power this little girl's parents gave her to face the challenges of her life when she was still very young. The Story of Opal: The Journal of an Understanding Heart is written by an orphaned six year old girl who is suddenly thrust into an unfamiliar life of an Oregon lumber camp. There is reason to believe she had been a French princess. Her key to survival was in her imagination. It's a touching and inspiring story.
And then, take a look at another book written by Opal: The Fairyland Around Us. ARTICLES/RESEARCH
The introductory chapter to this book is loaded with ideas pertaining to the importance of the imagination and why vocal expression is so vital to its development. Well worth the read.
Imagination and Dramatic Instinct by S. S. Curry, PhD (1896) |
POPULAR FAIRY TALE COLLECTIONS
(Click on image to go to digital copy)
(Click on image to go to digital copy)
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TOOLS:
Quality Building Blocks
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Wooden Peg People
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Make Believe Dress Up
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Enchanted Fairy Gardens
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DO:
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Teach your children to knit. You may be wondering what knitting has to do with the imagination. Well, I'll tell you. The more ways you find to occupy the hands of your children, the better chance you have of increasing their attention span to listen to the stories you want to read to them. And the more stories they listen to, the more their imaginations will grow. The Waldorf schools don't even attempt to teach phonics to students before they're 7. Instead, they create a story-rich environment and teach them to knit, starting at around age 5. If you don't know how to knit yourself, I've listed some places to start below. And as you look around on the internet, you'll find all kinds of fun projects for your kids to do. If your boys think knitting is a 'girl's thing', you might tell them that during the world wars, many of the soldiers passed the time by knitting socks for their comrades. I also included a story of how knitting gave new purpose to some hardened prisoners in a penitentiary. The rhythmic motion of knitting creates order for the mind as well as other benefits and the act of knitting helps with manual dexterity. Waldorf recommends adding in crocheting around age 8 as well as other handicrafts such as cross-stitch and embroidery. And don't underestimate the benefits to your future surgeon!
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ARTICLES ON WHY KNITTING MATTERS:
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HOW AND WHAT TO KNIT:
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