A quote that I love...

* "Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand"  --Albert Einstein

I think playing and imagination are vital for children and that is is important for parents and teachers to foster this. Children learn from play and using their imagination.  My children and I are always using our imagination. My daughter, who is three, and I were dropping off my son at school. We had walked him to his classroom and on our way back to the front of the school we spot an X on the ground. My three year old says "X marks the spot" in her best pirate voice. I was like woohoo she recognized her letter. I, in my best pirate voice, answered "Do you think there be treasure under the X!" I took out my imaginary shovel and we dug up the treasure. She picked up her ten gold coins and put them in her imaginary purse and we took our treasure out to the car. Through play and using our imagination I helped my daughter learn. We learned about letters and counting and we had a blast doing it!