Share your children's made-up worlds and stories to win a gorgeous red ukulele, signed picture book and limited edition print

[SorchaMumsnet]

Children are natural storytellers. To celebrate the publication of fantastical picture book <a class="break-all" href="//www.amazon.co.uk/Also-Octopus-Maggie-Tokuda-Hall/dp/1406373389/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1485361840&sr=8-1&keywords=also%20an%20octopus&tag=mumsnet&ascsubtag=mnforum-21" rel="nofollow noindex" target="_blank">Also an Octopus, we're asking you to share the stories your children create.

Also an Octopus is a story about... how to build a story! Every story needs a character, so why not a ukulele-playing octopus who wants to build a spaceship out of glitter and waffles? From award-winning illustrator Benji Davies and author Maggie Tokuda-Hall, Also an Octopus is a funny, warm-hearted tale all about storytelling; the perfect picture book for imaginative readers.

Walker Books have teamed up with Octopus Ukulele to offer Mumsnetters the chance to win a tentacle-tastic prize that will set imaginations soaring! Octopus Ukulele create the best beginner instruments around, perfect for creative play. Their ukuleles come in lots of different colours and we’ve got a gorgeous red one to give away.

For a chance to win a signed copy of Also an Octopus, a limited edition print AND an Octopus Ukulele just tell us: what imaginative worlds do your children dream up? Five runners-up will win a copy of Also an Octopus and a limited edition print.

This discussion is sponsored by Walker Books and will close end of day, Wednesday 1 March

Books T&Cs apply

[foxessocks]

My dd likes to play imaginary birthday parties. She blows up imaginary balloons, has imaginary friends over, makes an imaginary cake etc. It's very sweet.

[WhereTheFuckIsWonderWoman]

On Sunday DD, 6 built a den in the sitting room. Her home had been destroyed and she'd managed to escape to the wilderness where she befriended a fox and became a master forager. She had managed to rescue her favourite books from her bedroom before she fled and so she enjoyed a very happy existence living off fruit and nuts with her fox and books for company. In time she taught herself to use the wood that she found to carve plates, cups and cutlery. I think she produced a stool as well. As the day wore on she discovered a phone battery that had fallen from a hiker's phone along with a discarded piece of metal with which she was able to build her very own computer... on which she wrote her story

[asuwere]

DS2 has always been a daydreamer and doesn't always pay attention. He would often say something 2mins after we'd just discussed it. We started joking that he must have been away in 'DS2-land'. He totally took this on and started describing this land in detail, he would incorporate it in games at nursery, then write about his adventures when he started school! It's been an ongoing thing for years, sometimes I do wonder if he thinks it is a real place :)

[Firewall]

dS is always in a land of his own! He will use cardboard boxes to create his own world and even make inventions and props with junk! He sings and uses all his animal cuddly toys to join him on adventures. Battling wozzidorks (baddies he made up) that shoot into his ships or whatever it is!

[finova]

My child makes up imaginary tales about nursery. He often claims there were no teachers there! He tells me all sorts of naughty things his classmates supposedly do!
If anything gets broken or damaged at home he usually claims that a witch flew in the window and did it!

[greenapples]

Once when she was still a wee young thing at pre school, (now 6 going on 16), my dd insisted on taking her doll that day. It was rather unusual taking toys in (no one really seemed to do it as the kids spent most time outside making mud pies). When I asked why Grazia (I have no idea why she called her baby that name and no I don't read magazines) had to come I was told in no uncertain terms, 'her Daddy was killed by pirates and her Mummy is milking cows, so I need to look after her'. ''Ooooh ok," was all I could muster.

[ASqueakingInTheShrubbery]

DD, 3, wobbled while I was helping her to get dressed. I asked if she'd been eating the fruit of the wibbly-wobbly tree. She giggled, and told me that she had. It's brown, and juicy, and tastes of berries and sticky things. Every time something overbalances or wobbles now, she says it's been eating the fruit of the wibbly-wobbly tree and invents a bit more detail about it. I think it grows at the seaside, or sometimes at the childminder's house.

[CMOTDibbler]

DS had a very long running bath based game about a family of sea monsters with mummy, twin sons (Splashy and Washy) who ate lots of squid and got up to all sorts of things. I rather miss them!

[boptanana]

My dds are secret spies with baby dolls as cover for their true identities. The changing bag is full of secret gadgets disguised as a bottle, rattle, etc!

[gazingatthestars]

My dd thinks the reflection of lights in the window are monsters lurking outside and that goldilocks is hiding in all our beds...

[ButterflyOfFreedom]

DS's imaginary worlds nearly always include animals - so he'll be in the jungle being chased by a lion, on the farm rolling around in the mud with the pigs, or in 'Dinosaur World' fighting with a T-rex!
He can turn any household object into a potential predator and I myself have even become 'mummy polar bear' when I put my (white) dressing gown on!!

[FeelingSmurfy]

Her imagination is good anyway, but add in a prop and it's out of this world..Sometimes literally

Her grandma sometimes takes her to the charity shop, most kids would want a toy or a book but she bypasses these and comes home with something weird and wacky. She always has a back story for it, what it is and who owned it, what they used it for and how it came to be in the charity shop.

[confuugled1]

ds2 (8) inhabits many different universes I've been informed; unfortunately he rarely seems to inhabit the real world so getting him to do mundane things like homework, eating supper, tidying up and so on are the problem (although strangely brushing his teeth isn't - seems that that is important in all his other universes too!). I suspect he is one of the few children that has had his student of the week award for being 'mindboggling' (yup, that's actually written on his certificate!).

Yesterday he came home from school after club via Mars, Saturn and the Marianas trench, which is why he was a little late. I have no idea which route or period of history we will be coming home via today - maybe the Amazon or the SandDunes or Ancient Egypt... Every day is different!

His bedroom has been turned into its own country - complete with a name, an army (to defend it against his big brother!), a navy - made from some strange old bits of I don't know what that he picked up from the local scrap store, parades, a lot of group reading (he is sometimes late when we're going to school because he's dashed back upstairs to lay out his cuddly toys so they can read, mostly his favourite books and Beano comics!), and all sorts of different adventures.

The downside is that he isn't very good at making friends at school - this is the first term that he's actually talked about having friends of his own that he has played with at play time - he usually plays by himself and creates adventures so that he spends most of his break times discovering new universes too... And although he has a lovely time and is always very content with his own company, I do worry that he is missing out by not having friends to share his adventures with - and maybe he'd have a chance to explore the real world and have fun doing so too if he had friends to do it with.

[WowOoo]

Mine has animal societies and sets up Schleich animals all over the floor. Sometimes the horses are in charge and are the leaders, sometimes it's sea creatures. It's great listening to them 'talking' to each other. I have recorded him chatting as I want him to be able to listen to himself and his fab imagination when he's a grown man.

[NauticalDisaster]

My eldest had a whole group of adventure stories that started with doing a very big sneeze and travelling somewhere, usually to outer space!

[CheeseEMouse]

My daughter has an elaborate game of pretending to go camping (not that she has ever been...) with an assorted array of animals that come and visit her in the tent whilst she feeds them cornflakes (!)

[flickas]

My almost 3 year old loves picking up a book and reading it to me... Any book... his current favourite is telling me all about the sleeping trucks & diggers and what they dream about!

[RockingDuck]

ds and his story-- 'the boy who set a tree on fire'
me :-O
ds- It's OK it was an old tree


he also wrote one called the Fat Woman Who Could Never Stop Eating lord knows where he gets his inspiration.

[clairet144]

My daughter recently told me a very elaborate story about some Meercats that lived in her Chocolate Chip bread roll! She is 4!

[FarFromBeingGruntled]

My 5yo DS has multiple imaginary world games. Most of them are based around animals. His current favourite is Eagle Rescue, in which he is usually an eagle, although sometimes a vulture. In that world there are every kind of bird, and also a frog, because that is his little sister's favourite animal so she can play too! When he is Eagle he is usually talking about looking after all his 14 babies, and having lots of jobs to do and things to fix! He also plays Kingdom Adventures, which is all about dinosaurs and prehistoric animals, Sea Creatures, about a tank in an aquarium, and Vulture Pyramid, which is about a vulture and a peacock, who meet a snail, a slug and some ants. He is lost in imaginary play all the time - even the tassels on his jogging bottoms can each become characters in some adventure or other!

[Larnipoo]

My son Tommy made up a story where his Great Auntie Janet's ginger cat Jasper got stuck in a tree. Tommy tried everything to help Jasper and in the end did the biggest jump he could on his trampoline to rescue Jasper the cat. Great Auntie Janet was so happy that she gave Tommy a slice of Battenburg cake and a glass of milk to say thank you!

[Megansmumsie]

I love the look of this book!! I've seen the promotion doing the rounds and it looks so sweet. I love the idea of the competition including the Octopus ukulele!! Genius!

My DD has just turned 9, she loves books and anything related to books. She's long been a fan of chapter books but has an affection for picture books as she usually shares these with younger family members and friends, not to mention enjoying them herself!

When she was just 5 years old she decided to set herself a challenge to read 365 books in 10 months which we genuinely thought was nuts but she finished in 10 months, then she challenged herself to write a book which she did in 4 months! I've got to say as 28 year old who has always wanted to pen her own book, having your 6/7 year old daughter beat you to the punch is not what i had at all expected!!

She likes to write stories including animals, in far off distant lands with lots of adventure, some turmoil to overcome but ultimately happy and mysterious!

She's always entering writing competitions and she's set herself another reading challenge this year. The girl loves books, reading and writing.

Every day she's a different character and i have to try to keep up with who i'm meant to be in relation to that! Trust me i end up saying 'what? wait, who am i again?!' a lot. hahaha.

[Maggiemoomoo17]

My daughter loves playing with the frozen dolls but she does stuff like taking them to the hairdressers and doing their nails. I enjoy it to ❤

[izbiz1988]

My eldest, who is 9 now, has always been very imaginative, and always used to have imaginative friends. Although she's older now, she still loves to immerse herself in writing in diaries and making up stories etc. My youngest (3), is just getting into role play and loves to imitate things she has seen on TV. She's been reenacting Frozen for about three months now!

[xcxcsophiexcxc]

My four year old believes he's a train and that it's been Christmas for the past 6 months ...