Athen Sdrpc

Are children’s imaginations stifled when their rooms are decorated with marketed themes? Keep their gray matter growing by giving them space to focus on what juices their own creativity; When rooms are filled with raw material, kids have optimum opportunity to become their own heroes.
As a child, 1 played on my bed for hours, pretending it was a Conestoga wagon plodding West. No toys were needed apart from a knit shawl and a bonnet borrowed from my grandmother. A scene change called for dramatic capture by Indians, after which I went barefoot and wove my hair into braids. All the action was happening inside my head. One of my own little girls outdid me, though. One day, completing a writing assignment on deadline at the typewriter on the dining table, I had piled up toys and dolls for Leyah to play with, then dove into my work. Later I noticed the room had become totally silent. My four year-0ld was sitting stock-still in a little chair in the middle of the floor, staring into space.
I panicked thinking something was terribly wrong. “Leyah, are you all right? Why don’t you play?” I said. “Get your dolls and, please, play house or something!”

A parent who is part of the entertainment. A parent to wrestle with, to be tickled by, and to dress up in silly clothes or funny hairstyles! Haven’t you noticed that kids can almost smell the emotional presence of an adult? A kid’s room where parents dare to tread in their own messy glory is the place where lullabies linger on. This is the place to let down your hair and get goofy for a change. Build a blanket fort and serve crumpets with chilled orange tea. Crawl into the closet for a friendly ghost story. Do a spontaneous puppet show behind the chest of drawers. Inspiration is everywhere.
Kids’ rooms are not about external space but about a certain place inside a child who senses vividly who she is. A pilot? A gardener? A dancer? A cop? Isn’t there a kid inside you and me who understands what celebrating life is all about? The spirit of experimentation is how our gifts emerge and grow. Since when did the kid in us depend on corporate marketing of media heroes? When you and I were children, didn’t we create our own superhero themes?
A kid tinkers around with musical instruments, with Mom and Dad’s grown-up tools, and with whatever can be taken apart and put back together in alternative ways. A wooly sock becomes a puppet with button eyes. Big appliance boxes are a miner’s tunnel or a cowboy’s hideout. Swatches of fun fabric are cut, swathed, and tied into place on birthday dolls. Big fat catalogs are the perfect resource for making mosaic pictures out of tiny of pieces.