Imagination

My brothers and I are a lot older than our three local cousins and I was struck recently at the difference in our growing up. When my brothers and I were little, we played so many games with our imaginations.

• We had rocks that were dinosaur eggs that we buried so they would hatch.
  
• We took tree bark (that had blown off the tree), sticks, loose pieces of that black stuff they fix the sidewalks with, and the fuzzy balls from sycamore trees and made "fires".
• We made "soups" and "salads" in our "kitchen".
• We played house and farm and school. (Somehow we got our public school friends to play school with us too :)
• We played that we were lions and wolves and probably many other things.

You get the idea. We still talk about our "fires" and playing Tornado and "exercising". They are such fun memories. Do kids even do that anymore?

I get the irony of me asking that question. I'm not that old myself. But the younger kids I don't see doing much with their imaginations after they are in school. I'm not with my cousins all the time, but even when they were younger, I don't remember them playing house or family or anything like that. At our grandparents house, when my brothers and I were little, they had three willow trees. We would take plastic bags and pull the leaves off as far up as we could reach to "collect food for the winter". I literally don't remember what game we were playing but I remember that. My cousins never did anything like that, at least when we were around.

I'm not sure if imagination games are really going away or if I just don't see it in the kids I hang around. You tell me. Also, I'd love to hear about what you did as a kid or what your kids did. It's so fun to hear!!

(Let me know if you'd like me to expand on any of the little stories I mentioned in this post today! I'd be happy to oblige :)