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Post by unicorn on Feb 17, 2007 22:09:03 GMT -5
Tiff uses her imagination all the time. It is great. I try to cultivate it, but the attention aspect gets in the way a lot of the time and she moves onto something else.
I can't say that she is a comedian. She is so literal, she takes everything the way it is spoken to her. In some respects that is funnier then what you mean to say.
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Post by jfla on Feb 18, 2007 20:17:18 GMT -5
I love reading everyone’s stories and hearing how this gift expresses itself and can be encouraged. I think I started this topic after reading concerns of parents about their children’s imaginary friends and issues with lying on another board. It leads to questioning, “What is reality?” and how do parents allow or foster creativity, while helping their children develop a sense of reality…whatever reality is. I like Charliegirl’s way which is a thoughtful and sensitive approach of accepting two realities of what one thinks and what one can prove, while maintaining self respect. It is interesting how a concept in personal truth or proven truth can move from one category to the other and possibly change over time and new facts. Cg: “How did you channel it in your kids so they could dream and achieve without getting so far beyond their abilities that it would crash on them?” This is a hard question which I am not sure how to answer. It seems in raising my kids (now 21, 18, 15) I provided lots of materials and opportunities to be creative…planned and spur of the moment- arts and crafts, drama, music, dance, storytelling, game design, writing, cooking (I will never forget my son’s Koo-a-luksha Muffins he whipped up at 4 or 5 yrs old without a recipe) if I recognized an opportunity I’d seize it and go off into that world, role playing or doing. If interested, they picked up on it. On the other hand, I was always perfectly honest with them about “the real world.” If I twisted reality a bit they always knew by my smile and a pause in the action. Nowadays my 15 year old will say “Mo-om” in a tone of rolling the eyes if I try to go off on an escapade…aw shucks, he ruins everything. Now that I think about it, it is just what my sister and I would say to my dad’s fantasies. Even though they are older now when they get together they like to play pirates...dressing up, burying treasure and using a boat if one is around. My wallpaper on my computer is of them playing pirates on an island in Maine when they were almost 18,15, and 12. Crazyhouse: “We could be watching a movie or something and the zoning feeling after a period of time was like waking up and I would feel better after every session with my notebook” I can identify with that feeling, because I too was like that with drawing. I sometimes feel guilty for not making time for my artwork. Whenever I do it, I feel centered and invigorated afterward. Misty: That’s great that Shannon’s teacher recognizes this gift in her and is so supportive. Our kids need this recognition and encouragement in particular because there are so many other areas which provide challenges. I like how JD has become her name. Like you we have a ton of craft supplies and used to have ½ finished projects & legos around the house in case they want to come back to it. I also had a box of small everyday items (paper clips, spools, rubber bands, springs, Styrofoam stuff etc) which I would take out sometimes and instruct them to “make something.” They loved it. Linda: Natural comedians – they have the gift for looking at life with a different perspective and seeing the humor. My son had a sense of humor at an early age and his teachers in the early grades said it was quite advanced for his age, whatever that meant. I knew he had a sense of humor early when laying on his tummy in his crib at 3 ½ months, he spit his pacifier out and then laughed out loud watching it bounce across the mattress. I am a bit embarrassed to say that when he was 2 ½, I explained about April Fools Day. A bit later he stood up in his high chair and pulled his pants down. I asked what he was doing and grinning ear to ear he answered, “This is my joke.” Notetellin: artistic vs adhd I’d like to hear more about this. Hope I didn't bend an ear or two. Unicorn: I am gullible perhaps in the same way Tiff is...when someone is pulling my leg I often say "oh really?" Then I realize they are joking....I am a bit slow that way...
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Post by misty on Feb 18, 2007 21:10:02 GMT -5
Funny, I never worried at all about Shannon not knowing what was real or not. She's seemed to always know the difference between reality & fantasy. I remember when we 1st started reading the Harry Potter books. Oh, I think she was around 7. I started hearing all the hype from the "anti-HP" people, so I felt obligated to make sure she realized the books were just someones imagination, not based on reality. She listened to me for perhaps 3 minutes before interrupting me. "Moooom," she said, "I am not stupid! I KNOW theres not real wizards"! She was so enthralled by Harry Potter that we decided yto make up a magic potion "recipe" book. She made them up, I typed them. They were really funny! I'll have to find them now that I'm remembering so I can look back on them.
Whenever she'd tell me a story that was obviously made up, I'd always play along. I'd start out serious & gradually ask sillier & sillier questions until we were both laughing & giggling & she'd say "I made that UP, Mom!". Then I'd tell her I knew.
Now a days she keeps her fantasy to pen & paper & then types them on the computer. I'm keeping them all. Someday when she's a famous author, we can look back on where she began.
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Post by jfla on Feb 18, 2007 21:55:27 GMT -5
misty, that's great that you are keeping them all. I've kept my kids stories and they are treasures to read later on. In high school my daughter didn't like the fact that all of the writing they did was structured and no time or room for creative writing. She spent a lot of time on Neopets while or in between tons of homework. She said it was her way of keeping fantasy and creative writing active.
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Post by charliegirl on Feb 18, 2007 23:57:08 GMT -5
In high school my daughter didn't like the fact that all of the writing they did was structured and no time or room for creative writing. . Thats terrible. One of the things I loved about high school English was our teacher had us doing creative writing a lot. Other than research papers, almost all the writing we did was creative. He loved it when kids just took off and wrote about what they were thinking or feeling and encouraged us to go for it. My daughter had the same one I did and loved him too.
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Post by jfla on Feb 19, 2007 10:47:41 GMT -5
You and your daughter were so lucky! With No Child Left Behind, teachers are under such pressure to fit in everything. Unfortunately an important part for teens to express themselves emotionally and creatively is being left behind. Teenagers in particular need more time to express themselves about what is important to them...or just their wandering thoughts. This might be an area for parents to pick up and develop at home. The other morning my son asked if I saw the poem he wrote. I was surprised to find out that he wrote a poem about sleeping as he was getting tired and falling asleep with the TV on late at night. I thought it was funny that he complained slightly about missing something on comedy central because he was writing the poem. Better the poem than TV in my book.
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Post by jj on Feb 19, 2007 11:25:41 GMT -5
Talk about getting your kid to differentiate between fantasy and reality......my nephew (not ADHD) at the age around 4 & 5 yrs. old....not in school yet... would tell us things we "thought" he made up and we were trying to make a point that what he just said wasn't true. Come to find out, once he started Kindergarten, that he had such a high IQ and knew so much stuff a typical kid wouldn't know at that age they wanted him to skip two grades. Here we were thinking no 4 or 5 year old could possibly know the stuff he did and it turns out we were the dummies.
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Post by jfla on Feb 19, 2007 17:08:02 GMT -5
Talk about getting your kid to differentiate between fantasy and reality......my nephew (not ADHD) at the age around 4 & 5 yrs. old....not in school yet... would tell us things we "thought" he made up and we were trying to make a point that what he just said wasn't true. Come to find out, once he started Kindergarten, that he had such a high IQ and knew so much stuff a typical kid wouldn't know at that age they wanted him to skip two grades. Here we were thinking no 4 or 5 year old could possibly know the stuff he did and it turns out we were the dummies. Oh my gosh, that is so funny, good story!
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