Imagination

Other children around the country save up for things like video games or American Girl dolls and such. 

Not my children.  My children have saved up birthday monies for their own set of Jonathan Park Communicator Watches (and yes, they really work, lol!).  I have kindly offered to pay for part of the shipping for them.  I was able to find them elsewhere, but the difference in price/shipping was around a dollar or so and I would rather Vision Forum have the profits for their ministry instead (especially since it was their catalog and their radio show that inspired the children). 

Currently, my son wants to be a Creation scientist with vertebrate paleontology as a specialty.  This courtesy of listening to Jonathan Park, lol!  They listen to it every Saturday morning (or Sunday afternoon if they miss it on Saturday) and we started buying them the various seasons cd's for birthday's.  They already own the first 2 seasons right now.  To me, it is amazing that my children love to listen to radio shows in this day and age.  But, I suppose that is way better than watching TV.   We are thankful that VCY has these great radio shows for the children each week.

I think my favorite part of their listening to the radio shows (and reading) is how it translates into their play (and their imagination).  I have also seen a change in how the neighbor children play.  They attend PS and when we moved here a year ago, the only thing they knew how to play was "Hannah Montana", "High School Musical" and the "Penguins of Madagascar" (???) and some "star" type show.  Now, they play "Narnia", explorers, spy's, being animals, etc.  Lots of imagination instead of copying TV (well, Narnia is pushing it, but I would rather them play that than the other stuff).  I have seen many a sword battle out in the yard and many a prisoner being held, lol!

I think the other difference is the kind of books that they read or have read to them.  Rather than being twaddly worthless books, they are well written books and inspire the child to "live" them while they read them.  Then, they take that story, and add it into their imaginary play.  I suspect that most children, now, at the ripe old age of 10 no longer do much imaginary play.  I am thankful that our homeschooling has allowed that kind of fun to develope in my children.  I am thankful, too, that my parents were readers.  It encouraged me to read.  And I know a lot of what I read translated into play outside with the neighborhood children when we lived in Indiana (okay, I admit it - we also played Elvis and Fabian - my brother being Elvis and one of the other girls brothers was Fabian - we girls were the fans chasing them, lol! - and yet, Elvis was dead by then, LOL - {shrug}).

Anyway, if you are stuck in the rut of just doing "workbook" style homeschooling, please relook at what your children are reading - it makes all the difference in the world!
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