COVID-19 has changed lives in numerous ways that can be hard for adults to process — and it may be even harder for children to understand why they’re happening. They suddenly see people wearing masks in public and social distancing in stores. They may be used to Mom or Dad sitting next to them when getting a haircut, and suddenly they’re sitting farther apart. They may have, in the past, gone on errands with parents, but now they can’t in places where the building capacity is limited.

So how do you explain these issues to your children in age-appropriate ways?

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Have you ever seen a young child open a larger present — and then toss the gift aside to play inside the box? The box may become a race car or spaceship, or something else entirely. No matter the specifics, that child is engaging in imaginative play, and the process of pretending is both essential and more complex than it may look on the surface.

Here are four benefits of imaginative play.

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A key part of being a parent is modeling good behavior for our children, as pointed out on HealthyChildren.org, which provides high-level strategies to help shape behavior, including modeling positive behaviors. If your child sees adults sharing, using good manners and taking turns, for example, he or she is more likely to learn those behaviors.

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Some children are perfectly willing to wear whatever a parent suggests, while others develop a unique sense of style at a very young age. If your child falls into the latter category, what do you do if he or she decides a fall jacket doesn’t fit into his or her fashion plan? Answers from experts about children and cold weather might surprise you.

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If you have more than one child, it’s possible that they have similar personalities. It’s also possible, though, that their personalities are so different that it’s hard to believe they’re related. Psychologists have studied birth order and the effects it has on people, but conclusions are far from cut and dried.

So, first we’ll go through generalizations that hold some truth.

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You tell your preschooler to put her toys away and she gets started – but then, instead of seeing her picking up her games and action figures, you find her gazing at one of her favorites with a half-smile on her face. You get a call from her preschool teacher saying that your daughter never disrupts the group but she tends to drift off into her own thoughts rather than focusing on the new activity being explained. Then, when you go to check up on her, she’s staring out the window.

It sounds like you’ve got a daydreamer!

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