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When you're little and lying in bed at night, or playing, anything and everything is possible with a twist, a word, a thought, gesture or action. In a moment you can be living in a castle fending off mighty dragons, scoring the winning goal in a World Cup Final, bringing up a family of lions in a shoe box or flying to the outer reaches of the Galaxy. Your imagination has no limits, and what is real to you while sitting at home eating lunch is just as real absorbing your dinner on another planet, feeding on soft moist gloogibotts, drinking litres of shishkamakkas or sucking on a dry blemmie mint. School begins to take away this imagination just when you begin to really get into it, and although most teachers work very hard to nurture the imagination, there are so many other things teachers are under orders to teach. I am very lucky. I get to work with primary aged children, nurturing those imaginations they are already beginning to lose, or at least hide away because the system has little use for them. If you have a daydreamer in the family don't be scared of them losing out, of failing. Encourage them to write down, talk about, draw what they are day dreaming about. They are delving deep into their own minds still, finding wonderful ideas and possibilities. Who knows where these may lead. Writing for children is fun too, although the best stories are usually those made up on the spur of the moment and sadly never written down. They used to be memorised and passed down through word of mouth, but we don't do much of that anymore. If it isn't written down or on film the story is usually lost. Adults, being children themselves only in grown up bodies, long to daydream more and fell they have to put up with those pangs of nostalgia for the days they could just play whatever game they liked, all day and all night too if they chose to dream. Computers have taken playtime away in even the most well meaning households. 30 - 40 years ago 'they' said television would kill conversation, then videos would cull the imagination and of course DVD's would do the same. Computer games are now said to be the cause of all kinds of anti-social behaviour. While most activities in excess can be harmful, they all need to be put into perspective. With each new activity feeding our increasing leisure time, new and even more exciting ideas are born. So the next time you see one of your children staring off into space in a place far far away, let them be. Go there yourself and re-acquaint yourself with this place. A whole new world awaits your return. Rob Daniel is a children's author, memory and self-esteem teacher. He lives in a beautiful town called Albany on the south west corner of Western Australia, has a passion for mangos, the Greek Islands and Chelsea FC, coaches three soccer teams and kind of plays himself. Rob creates 'turn the page' children's e-books with illustrators from around the world.
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You can check out and if you like, buy his books from www.chocmint.ws Coming soon is www.chocmint.com LATEST book published, June 8th 2006 'A Tail's Tale', illustrated by UK artist Elizabeth Stringer. Part proceeds from these books go towards sponsoring children at the BearCare orphanage in Kitgum, Uganda run by the extraordinary Murray Kidd.
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