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Backstory – Children’s Fantasy House
Today’s children don’t have the opportunities for imagining that we did fifty years ago. I’ll bet you had a private club house or tent or fantasy house to play in. They were not plastic things you bought at Toys R Us. Might have been the treasure of a big cardboard box with doors and windows cut out. It could be any color and any purpose we wanted, because it was created in our imagination.
I hope there are teachers and leaders out there who are creating platforms for imagination for today’s kids. If you know of any, please let me know.
In the meantime, here are the details of the fantasy house of my childhood.
Consider This Show – Children’s Fantasy House
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We passed a grove of peach trees today. They reminded me of the fantasy house I had as a child. It was at the foot of a coal bank in Northeastern Pennsylvania, in a cluster of peach trees.
We lived in anthracite territory, and banks of coal were a regular part of the landscape. We would take rocks and outline rooms in our fantasy homes. Under this tree was the living room. That tree covered the kitchen. If a tree was so low that you had to crawl under it, obviously, that had to be the bedroom.
Imaginations soared as my friends and I visited each other in our fantasy houses. The hours we spent designing the home we would have in the future. and the meals we’d serve. The parties we’d give and the children we would have.
And then . . . the blink of the eye and voila . . . there we were in the real world with real husbands and kids and houses.
You might say we got the chance to make our house dreams come true. We certainly were good with colors and styles and we keep everything clean and perky.
But somehow no domicile was ever quite as sweet as my fantasy home under the peach trees at the foot of the coal bank in Hudson, Pennsylvania.
[Show # 333]
Oh my gosh, what memories this brings back. In the summer, my secret place was a mimosa tree in the yard. I could climb up into the lowest fork and shimmy out and up until another fork in the branches created a natural seat. I felt safe and invisible there, and my siblings and I would rig up a bucket on a rope to pull snacks and other items up and down.
In rainy or cold weather, we made secret places with card tables and chairs covered with blankets and sheets. How delicious to crawl in with our flashlights and tell shivery stories or read.
Even with fancier toys, my two-year-old grandson loves to crawl through a tunnel made by throwing a quilt over the sofa seat on one side and the ottoman on the other. The squeals when he pops out the other side and sees us waiting for him are such heart-nourishing sounds!
Oh how I hope that today’s children have similar opportunities to exercise imagination and creativity, Elizabeth. It’s such a concern that PLAY is handed to them, created by someone else, instead of their being taught how to create PLAY. Perhaps we are missing something and they do have those ops with the electronic gadgets. I hope so.
Thanks much for your post, Elizabeth.