Lately my daughter, Arissa likes to imagine herself as a princess. Yesterday she said to me she is a Snow White, this morning before off to school she said wanna be like Ariel and just now when she's playing with her little brother, she pretends to be Jasmine, princes Jasmine to be exact and asked her brother to be prince Ali. I think she has been influenced by all the watched animated cartoon series of Walt Disney. All the Disney Princess were stored in her imagination. The challenging part, she wants me to dress her up like fairy tale princess. Hari-hari kalau boleh mau pakai dress daaa. Harus dress yang labuh-labuh dan mesti kembang setaman o.k. 
Photo: Arissa is playing with friends, wearing dress kembang setaman and rantai manik koran, 4 yrs old, 2010.Despite of that she had an imaginary friend. Should I call this as her 'imaginary fren'? Guess what? A 'kepam' teddy bear. Actually, that lovely teddy was a present given to her by my closed friend. Hafizi gave her that teddy at Penang airport during the day we left Malaysia to UK. Since then, that teddy become Arissa's closed friend indeed. Every where we go, we have to bring that teddy along. Oh yes! Recently Arissa named her... as Daisy! We almost lost Daisy when Arissa accidently dropped her on the railway. My husband had good intention to pick up Daisy from the rail-track but the officer warned him not to do so, perhaps it is too dangerous. So we walked away with anxious and worried feelings. Because Arissa definitely will turn to us and asking for Daisy later. Actually, I was so sad too, thinking that Daisy will be buried down there-digilis keretapi. We walked and suddenly, we heard someone is calling us from the back, that train-officer. I saw he is holding the poor Daisy. Alhamdulillah, I think that officer was totally understand how and what is the feelings of someone losing her 'kepam' teddy. We are very thankful to him because in a day without 'gentel' bulu-bulu Daisy yang dah kusam dan kepam, Arissa akan keluh-kesah, macam ayam berak kapur.
Photo: Sleeping beauty is slept on Daisy, 2 yrs old, 2008.I am actually worried if her imagination are because of loneliness or lack of attention and etc. But as far as I concern, no matter how busy I am, I'll ensure I 'layan' her as good as I could. But sometimes, I do feel that I have taking some precious time-away from her. I feel bad! So today I googled about kids and their imagination. Are they bad or good? I have found these, something that amused me very much. Here are some amazing benefits that come from developing the imagination:
1.Imagination helps school-age children solve problems by helping them think through different outcomes to various situations and role playing ways to cope with difficult or new circumstances.
2. Imagination allows children to practice real-life skills. From shopping at a pretend grocery store to assigning roles and dialogue to dolls or puppets, children's pretend play helps them practice and apply new learning and better understand how those skills are used in the real world.
3. Imagination encourages a rich vocabulary. Telling and hearing real or made-up stories, reading books and pretend play help children learn and retain new words.
Imagination helps children grow up to be adults who are creative thinkers. Adults who were imaginative children often become problem solvers, innovators and creative thinkers.
1.Imagination helps school-age children solve problems by helping them think through different outcomes to various situations and role playing ways to cope with difficult or new circumstances.
2. Imagination allows children to practice real-life skills. From shopping at a pretend grocery store to assigning roles and dialogue to dolls or puppets, children's pretend play helps them practice and apply new learning and better understand how those skills are used in the real world.
3. Imagination encourages a rich vocabulary. Telling and hearing real or made-up stories, reading books and pretend play help children learn and retain new words.
Imagination helps children grow up to be adults who are creative thinkers. Adults who were imaginative children often become problem solvers, innovators and creative thinkers.
Reading those remarks, I feel better and relief now. Pheeew. I hope Arissa pretend play and imagination helps develop many important skills that boost her learning and success. Hoping that Arissa's imagination on acting as 'princess' is somehow to allow her to practice to be a kind-hearted person. Princess kan always with noble heart? See? Sekarang siapa yang lebih berimaginasi? Mak or anak?
