Ability to use imagination is a life skill, crucial for possibility-thinking. Imagination adds a rich dimension to children's lives and is key to understanding the feelings of others. It is one of childhood's great arts - and two-year-olds become masters!
There are many ways practitioners nurture imagination: storytelling, singing, sharing poems and, most importantly, allowing abundant time for child-initiated play. The physical environment also plays a crucial role. An outdoor environment rich in variety - open areas, slopes, inviting nooks, sand pit, lots of open-ended materials, shrubs, mud kitchen - allows imagination to flourish.
Indoors too imagination will blossom in every part of the room, but two areas particularly foster fantasy play and should be given special consideration: the construction area, where twos start to create miniature environments with blocks and act out narratives using small-world figures; and the role-play area where the children themselves are the actors.
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