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What's Going On In There? How the Brain and Mind Develop in the First Five Years of Life 
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Imaginative Play Ideas - What Do Your Children Learn When They PlayBy Andrew Loh Your children possess a series of abilities and skills that are always latent and hidden. If you want your children to succeed in life, you will need to help them play in an imaginative manner. Imaginative play is an efficient tool that helps your children in a number of ways. You may wish to introduce a number of imaginative play activities early in your children's life, because most of the developmental parameters occur between the age of two and five. Preschoolers and young toddlers are the excellent candidates for imaginative play, as their abilities to involve in imaginative play are amazing and natural. Here are some imaginative play ideas and suggestions for parents: Music Appreciation/Creative Movement: Children simply love to listen to music! They also adore making their own music. Just watch your young children humming while playing games. Music is universal and children are the most suitable candidates for learning music. Creative movement along with cajoling notes of music is a superb method to dip into your children's imagination and artistic side. Outcome: Music helps your children to connect the outer ambience of creative movement and sound with the inner and delicate world of heart-felt feelings and observations. Imaginative music games or moving vigorously to sweet music is a very powerful initial experience in the artistic developmental process. Children learn music in almost the same way they learn language skills - both by listening and imitating. Listening to good music also help, your children acquire important primary pre-reading skills. Creative movement also expands and diversifies imagination. In addition, it is a thrilling learning method makes the learning process easier and simpler. Outdoor Play: Outdoor play is an excellent way of developing a number of important skills. Playtime activities like running, rope climbing, running, jumping, climbing, biking and sand play form the most favorite among your children. Almost all schools provide these facilities in their playgrounds and help children play in their own way. Your children can easily develop multiple skills that are both physical and mental in nature. As your children start playing different self-created scenarios, they will involve their mind and body in acquiring important skills like cognition, eye-hand coordination and abstract thinking. Outcome: Outdoor play will help refine your child's motor skills related muscular structure. The very specific and delicate lateral movement of muscle will also help master basic reading and writing skills. Manipulating the existing surroundings and making them to suit personal preferences will assist your children develop critical thinking process. Cooperative Play: You must allow your children play with their friends and peers. Playing with other children will help learn cooperation and empathy. Your children will also help by acquiring leadership and organizing skills. Outcome: Team playing will help your children develop respect for others. Cooperation is an important skill that helps you live among others in complete peace. Early childhood cooperative play will also help your child imbibe the spirit of working with others in a combined effort. Solving problems and finding solutions to tricky situations are two other positive attributes that your child can learn through imaginative play. Puzzles: Puzzles are possibly the most enduring activities since thousands of years. Complex puzzles, board games, Rubik cubes and piece-puzzles can help children develop a number of skills that are mental in nature. Outcome: All puzzles need abstract thinking power. Puzzles also help children see and watch the space in front of them and later predict what could happen or belong there. Puzzles also require very fine muscle and mind control/reflexes needed to solve critically important problems. Cooking: Children simply love playing with imitate cooking play sets. They also adore the process involved in the actual cooking process. Cooking is actually an interactive process of using a number of tools and materials. This activity helps your child streamline sequential thinking process. It also helps them lean the process of using lateral thinking to create something that exists only in their mind. Outcome: Cooking is a basic life skill because it provides children the basic sense of competence and independence. Counting and measuring are two basic math skills that your children can derive from this process. Cooking also reinforces small to medium motor skills and reasoning abilities. Your children will also enhance the basic abilities of how to alter a given situation and convert it into personal advantage. In essence, imaginative play is a great way to develop your children in a manner that helps them to compete in a world that is full of competition and contradictions. 
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