Imagine That

I'm happy to live in a neighborhood where kids can play outside on sunny days without adult supervision.

I wonder if they use their imaginations and pretend things as we did when I was a kid, but I certainly don't want to be nosy and spy on them.

Today's kids are using I-phones and pads so much of the time they don't have much opportunity to use their own minds to create possibilities.

And most of them are constantly under adult supervision so they stop pretending at a much younger age than my generation did.

I grew up just after World War II and, if people returning from military service had PTSD we never heard about it. I personally knew some airmen who had served in the Korean War, and my mother worked at Hamilton Air Force Base as Civilian Personel so I met quite a few other military people. They all seemed perfectly normal, though some might have hidden their trauma.

I wonder if part of the reason some war veterans have PTSD today is because they were used to shooting and killing people all the time with their computer games and didn't realize how different the real thing would be.

I wish kids could just go out to play and pretend for a few hours every day without the use of technology.

Imagination

"Oh, Janet, you have SUCH an imagination!" my mother used to say.

She didn't mean it as a compliment, but I'm happy to have an active imagination.

My neighborhood friends and I used to pretend to be all sorts of things while we played outside. At times I was a princess, a horse, a space alien, etc., etc., etc.

Unfortunately, today lots of kids stop pretending when they're young because they always have adults supervising them. Sometimes the only way they use their imaginations is with video games.

But I still have an active imagination, which is one reason why I write books for kids. And when children - or grown-ups - get involved in good books they're carried away to adventures and different worlds and experiences.

Some of my books include ordinary kids taking risks to reach important goals. One is about an imaginary creature - a giant talking worm. Another book takes readers to the past, and one helps them understand people who are different from themselves.

I believe providing fiction for kids to read is an important task.

What else can we do to help kids use and develop their imaginations?

(P.S if you want to know more about my books go to my website, www.janetanncollins.com)

Hot, Hot, Hot!

I probably shouldn't admit such an embarrassing thing in public, but I'm scared of my stove. Well, it's not the whole stove that frightens me, it's the self-cleaning oven.

I do use it once in a while, but every time I realize the job must be done it takes me several days to get enough courage to actually do it because the oven gets so hot I wonder if it might set the house on fire.

If I turn it on at night what if it starts a fire while I'm asleep? Or if I do it when I leave home for a few hours what if I return and find the house has burned down?

Yes, I know it is designed to be safe. Yes, I'm careful to follow the instructions exactly. Yes, millions of other people use self cleaning ovens and I've never heard of even one that started a house fire. And, yes, I've used mine safely many times.

But, hey! I'm a writer. I have an active imagination and part of creativity is asking "What if....?"

Maybe tonight I'll send the Worry Monster off to bed early and take the dare so tomorrow I'll wake up to a clean oven. Meanwhile I'll try sending him off after some new plot ideas so I can cook up some delicious stories..