Tale of a cowboy hat

A couple of days ago, my wife, Syahidah, placed a cowboy hat on Fintan's head and left him to his own devices.

Some time later, she saw him running around the house from one room to another.

"Fintan, why are you running around?"

"I am trying to catch my horse...it has run away." he explained.

He continued to run.

Some time later, he was standing still in his room, looking at something that wasn't there.

"What happened?" Syahidah asked him.

"Oh, I shot my horse.", he confided. "First I tied him up, then I shot him."

He was quite satisfied to have solved the problem of the horse that just wouldn't sit still.

It is the imagination of a child that I think is most precious - for in the mind of an imaginative child, anything can be considered and all is possible. Yet, is such imagination common to all children? From observation, I would say not. Some children don't seem to have much of an imagination. Is that the reason most adults lack imagination? Is it because they start out with none...or is it because they lose it as they grow up?

I rather hope Fintan doesn't lose his imagination, but finds a creative application for it, that satisfies him and brings him fulfilment. Right now, it is both fun and fascinating to watch his imagination at work. Long may it be part of him.

(If you would like to learn more of Fintan, three, or his gifted brothers, Ainan Celeste Cawley, seven years and six months, and Tiarnan, sixteen months, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.hmtl I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, the creatively gifted, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)