Imaginative play

2 nites ago, ZQ came into the room and told me, "Mama, it's your birthday" ... paused .. then said "Come on out, I've got a celebration for u". SO i went .... "Oh ... it's mama's birthday? .... ok ...... what celebration have you got for me?"

I went to the living room and he set up some toys, and said there's a cake for me. He put on the candles, then i taught him to light the match and we sing birthday song, blew the candles and cut the cake. He then cut a piece to offer me .... i ate it, then he offered another, and another. It was fun. I told him "Not too much cos mommy's gonna get a tummy ache".

Am quite amazed at how imaginative these little kids are and it's a good thing that he is. I'd rather this than having him become a couch potatoe. Although he does watch a reasonable amt of TV - cos sometimes really too busy to keep this active toddler occupied.

Sometimes he'd say something and i had to ask him if it's real or he's just playing pretend.

He also went to tell Papa that it's his birthday and guess papa's response?
No, it's not my birthday. Then ZQ said "It's your birthday" ... cos he wanted to show papa the celebration he had prepared so it has to be papa's birthday for the celebration right?
Papa again said "it's not my birthday" ... sometimes i'd rather he play along and jus say "Ok, let's play pretend" .... ZQ understands that it is not real, just imaginative play. He's pretty good at identifying reality with fake play, which is good cos some children would grow up with imaginative frens who don't go away in extreme cases.

In short, imaginative play should be encouraged and passive input ie from the TV should be reduced. He learnt alot from the TV programme - Disney Channel as well but it should not be his every waking hour.

I must comment that at his age (turning 3 in 2 months' time) .. he's pretty mature. He'd know that his TV time is up when we ask him "Are you done with your TV?" "Please switch off the TV" ..... he'd request for another "5 minutes" then he'd go turn off the TV.
He even says "Too much TV is bad for the eye" ...coming from his, it sounds quite cute.

One of the programme which i find that it's educational is called "Word World" ... it would have words that springs up live and becomes the item/object itself. E.g. BOOK will appear in the shape of a book while retaining the characters and we still can see that it spells as Book. It's good for them to learn alphabets and also identify them.