More murderers of imagination

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I guess I may have made it sound like my children were paragons of imagination and all because they aren't in school. That they spend all their free time building forts and playing pirates and knights and . . . etc.

Not so much. They do play that way some, but not as much as I would like. Not as much as I did. I spent most of my free time either reading or "imaginative play" - which means I had no one to play with except lizards who didn't follow the rules of the games very well. The reading gave me ideas of what to play, and which character I wanted to be.

That my kids don't do that is not the fault of the school system because they have never gone to public school. The school system is not the only imagination killer.

I wish.

Another is tv and video games. (gasp!) I know! Now I am stepping on toes including my own.

I really don't like how much tv and video games my kids watch but since Hubby is also a fan of the one-eyed monster, it is difficult to reduce their tv time much more. The rule is no tv before 3, which still sounds like a lot but we frequently aren't home after 3. And sometimes they don't get to turn the TV on at 3 anyway because I won't let them.

In the time that we have had this rule (about 1 1/2 years) I have seen their creativity grow. It still isn't where I want it, but it is improving. I have seen forts, board games, card games and the like. I haven't seen pirates because Daisy declares "pirates are for boys" - boy was she shocked when I told her there were girl pirates.

We read living books all the time - right now we are reading Treasure Island, Alice in Wonderland, The Phantom Tollbooth, and Perloo. There has got to be some imagination fodder in those, right? They just haven't made the leap from the books to play.

How do you foster your kids creativity?