Children today spend far more time in structured activities and far less time exploring and engaging in good, old-fashioned make believe. Yet research shows that imaginative play helps children develop a wide range of critical skills, including self-control. Looking for that inspiration to spark your child’s imagination? Then try reading fairy tales.  These classic books for kids not only represent a happily ever after for every child, but they inspire a whole range of creative activities for kids.

Remember when we used to play outside?

When I was a kid, outside was where imagination ran amok – whether we were designing a go-cart, dodging bullets in a war zone, or making a meal of dried grass spaghetti and dirt meatballs.

Outside was the place from which we, as kids, had to be reeled in. Whether it was dinner time or bedtime or time to clean up, coming inside was always a downer.

Outside was where we grew like wildflowers, rather than the cultivated hothouse variety.

But children today seem more cultivated, less spontaneous. When I look at my own children, I wonder where all that outside time has gone. Not that they don’t play outside. They are out there with their friends, kicking a ball around, setting up a lemonade stand, jumping on a trampoline.  Yet their world is more structured, leaving less time for good, old-fashioned imaginative play.

Are kids today too busy to let their imaginations run wild? Many experts think so. Historian Howard Chudacoff, who wrote “Children at Play: An American History,” argues that the very nature of play has changed as children spend more time in organized activities and less time storming the castle. Parents, Chudacoff argues, should allow children to play in their own world.

And Chudacoff is not alone. Many psychologists believe that the changing nature of the way children play has had an impact on their cognitive and emotional development.  Make-believe play, they say, has its advantages. When children make up their own games and their own rules in their own world, they are also developing a critical cognitive skill which allows children to self-regulate. That means through play, children learn how to control their emotions and behavior, and learn self-control and discipline – all critical skills in school and beyond.

And do you know what is on the experts’ list of better ways to play?  Pay attention, parents, because you need not fade into the background for this one – joint story time.

“Reading storybooks with preschoolers promotes self-regulation, not just because it fosters language development, but because children’s stories are filled with characters who model effective self-regulatory strategies,” researcher Laura Berk told National Public Radio.

What’s more, reading stories with your children fuels imaginative play. Would you rather your kids stormed the castle more and practiced dribbling a soccer ball less? Do you want them to engage in swashbuckling battles and mix potions from dried leaves? Would you like to send them off to the land of make believe, where they can match their wits and courage against an all-powerful foe? Then try reading fairy tales with your children. Plant the seeds of their imagination, and watch it grow.

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