Sometimes I wish I were a kid again…. That’s partly because I wouldn’t have to worry about things like paying rent, ironing or being able to apply liquid eye liner. But the main reason is this: I miss my imagination.
As a child, your creativity is quite literally boundless. You’re unrestrained by anxiety about your place in the world, or being realistic about your own abilities, or you know, understanding how gravity works.
You can be a beautiful princess riding a white unicorn into battle, with the aid of only a plastic tiara and the much put-upon cat. You can be Tarzan swinging from the treetops and hollering to a walking/talking brown bear, when playing on the primary school jungle gym and utilising a leopard print scarf you stole from mum.
The possibilities are endless.
But as you grow older, they becoming increasingly limited as your mind separates the possible from the impossible.
Refe Tuma and his wife, want their kids to hold onto that sense of boundless creativity just a little longer. So, they’ve taken the rather significant step of bringing their kids’ toys to life, while they’re sleeping.
In a real life Toy Story, Refe Tuma and his wife stay up late each night in November and rearrange their children’s toy dinosaurs into scenarios like this:
Yeah, we know. Awesome, right?
Imagine being six or seven years old again and waking up to find that your toys had used rubber bands and string to turn your living room into a flying fox. Mind. Blown.
Refe Tuma explains the thoughts process behind ‘Dinovember’ here. Amongst other things, he says:
… in the age of iPads and Netflix, we don’t want our kids to lose their sense of wonder and imagination. In a time when the answers to all the world’s questions are a web-search away, we want our kids to experience a little mystery. All it takes is some time and energy, creativity, and a few plastic dinosaurs. Childhood is fleeting, so let’s make sure it’s fun while it lasts.
You can take a look at some more of Refe’s brilliant creations here: