Imagination

Imagination (n) the faculty or action of forming new ideas, or images or concepts of external objects not present to the senses

I have always wanted my children to have vivid imaginations. As a former teacher, I had classes of students who were unable to entertain themselves during recess times and it bothered me.  When we would have indoor recess I would not let them watch tv; you would have thought the world was coming to an end!  So when I became a parent, I didn't want my children to watch a lot of tv and their favorite toys were multi-play as opposed to single purpose.  (With an impending 3rd pregnancy...well...they watch a bit more tv now)

That being said, my kids do have imagination.  They can entertain themselves with paper towel rolls and pipe cleaners for hours.  I feel like I have helped foster their imagination by giving them the opportunity to play without toys.  I never imagined how their imaginations could grow even larger.

Today as I was getting dinner ready, I over heard them outside playing Greek Gods/Heroes.  Now, I'm pretty sure that this was because we just returned from a week long trip to Greece.  We read Greek Myths and heard a great many stories while we were touring Athens.  But what struck me tonight was not just how their imaginations have grown in tremendous ways, but also how they will play with their peers when we return home.  Their peers here would join in, because they have similar experiences with either vast travel or vast reading knowledge.  But when I started to think about some of their peers back home and how they played together, the 45 minutes that my children were playing would have been rife with discord. The knowledge about the Greek Gods/Heroes would be limited at best, which I'm sure would cause problems with the "flow" of play.  My kids are self-confident anyway (even before we moved).  When something isn't going correctly, they want it corrected and aren't afraid to tell someone how it can be corrected. So my questions are these...

How do I help my children make this transition back home?  How will I help them not seem pretentious?  How will I help them learn to code switch (to borrow a Ruby Payne term)?  I am no where closer to figuring these answers out, but with a contract due for renewal in 1 year, I might want to seriously start considering it...