Recently I read a few pages in a book called The Future of Play Theory, and there was one sentence that caught my attention. It said that an object a child plays with should not limit its imagination but that the imagination should direct how a child plays with the object.
When I came home from work yesterday, my son was lying on the living room floor with a big blank sheet of paper, and a lot of different types of coloured pens and pencils. He was drawing a picture, or more like a whole new world of creation he had pulled from his imagination. When I asked him to tell me the story behind his creation, his face lid up and he told me a long story about what was what, who did what, and why. This is not the first time my son uses these huge (well, they´re only A1 in size, but for a 5 year old that is quite big!) sheets of paper as a canvas for his imagination and sometimes it can keep him occupied for a couple of hours. Sometimes he even takes a break from it for a few days and than comes back later to add the final touches. He has also been known to cut his creations into smaller pieces and glue them back together to change the scenarios.
Blank sheets of paper give a child freedom for to explore, to let the mind wander free, and to create. In my opinion, the bigger the sheet the better, (and less chance of the child continuing its creation on your nice living room floor). A lot of colored pens and pencils, small child proof scissors and glue give added possibilities, but are not necessary. A sheet of paper and one pencil or pen can work wonders for young creative minds.
If you want to use the colouring books your child already owns, why not encourage him/her to colour outside the lines? Let him experience the great liberating feeling of not being stuck within a predecided form and see how he reacts when the power shifts from the creator of the drawing in the colouring book to the child. The child could even use its imagination to draw new pictures or forms from the existing ones and thereby giving the picture its own creative touch. Why not sit down with your child and colour outside the lines yourself? It is a surprisingly good feeling and after a few times of re-programming our behavior, it will feel like the only right thing to do!
Have fun! 
What are your thoughts? Got any good tips on creative play?
Thorunn
Photo credit: Greencolander
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Wow, excellent post. Nice to have some personal experiences in the blog, makes me feel like I know you better
Thanks Arnor!