Tell us about the imaginary worlds your DC get lost in for a chance to win a Sam & Dave Dig a Hole hamper

[UrsulaMumsnet]

Sam & Dave Dig a Hole by Mac Barnett and Jon Klassen

Sam and Dave are on a mission to find something spectacular. So they dig a hole and they dig and dig and they keep on digging and they find ... nothing! But the day turns out to be pretty spectacular after all! Sam & Dave Dig a Hole perfectly captures the imaginary worlds young children create when they play, turning the simplest of things into the biggest adventures.

Tell us about the imaginary worlds your DC get lost in for a chance to win a Sam & Dave Dig a Hole hamper including a signed copy of Sam & Dave Dig a Hole by Mac Barnett & Jon Klassen, a poster, activities, stickers and a signed, limited edition print for your child’s bedroom. Five runners up will get a copy of the book.

Sponsored by Walker Books

This competition ends 7th October 2015

My almost 5 year old frequently adopts her alter ego Mr Snuffles and leaps into Guineapigia, which seems to be a world inhabited by hybrid guninea pig aliens. Inhabitants of Guineapigia (her baby sibling also has been granted a passport under the name Mr Sqiggles and friends are invited to join) fly rockets, enjoy gravity free bouncing (on sofas) and squeak earnestly at each other during their excursions there.

I have no idea what the inspiration for this is, or why all Gineapigians are male and without first names....

My 3 year old has a wonderful imagination and this summer has spent hours talking to the flies, butterflies and other insects that have buzzed around our back garden. She's invited them for a tea party and has drawn pictures to give to them. It's been lovely to watch her start to get to learn about the nature around us.

My boys imagine that their teddies are their sons. Fudge and Toffee are the naughty ones and the others are all good. They feed their sons according to their ages, so the youngest get milk or baby food. If they are old enough the bears go to nursery or school.

My 4 year old is always telling me about things that monkey has said or things that they have done together. Apparently, they went to China together last Christmas (on a blue aeroplane and a train) and had a fantastic time. Monkey isn't naughty, but occasionally he does things that she thinks are silly, like eating spaghetti with custard.

Illiment apparently lives in the house, with the blue front door, across the road from us. My three year old daughter is very clear that illiment is a girl and that it is going to be her 5th birthday party at 5 o'clock. My daughter always says that she is going to the party and that she will cross the road, looking both ways to get there!

My 2 &1/2 year old likes to involve us in her imaginary games. She has a December birthday so Christmas-y things seem to have a special resonance for her. She regularly prepares figgy pudding (pronounced pugging) for us as part of her tea parties. She gets mad at me when I don't let her use the window keys as spoons or my jewellery box as a bowl for figgy pugging.
We are also frequently warned to watch out for dinosaurs- most shadows are really dinosaurs that we have to run away from or at least scream at to go away.
She and daddy are always going on airplane rides, she makes him sit on he steps or the couch and buckle up and they prepare to fly to visit her grandparents (who live an hours drive away).
She also likes to shove a stuffed cat under her shirt to pretend it's a baby. When it falls out, she tells us she borned it and asks us to stroke her baby because it is so cute.

DD had an imaginary friend called Cardiff, who wore silver boots and lived in a caravan with her Grandparents. I really don't know where she gets her ideas from.
:)

It is mostly dinosaur lands that my DC imagine. There is a lot of roaring and stomping around. When I feign to be scared my eldest tells me that it is okay as it is only pretend and that he's not really a TRex.

My DCs like playing knights in the castle. They build up an imaginary castle using chairs, stools and blankets and like hacking their way through the forest of blankets!

My son has always had a wonderful imagination ... which was slightly worrying when (easily sucked in by TV advertising) at 2 years old his imaginary friend was called 'Foxy Bingo!' It was hugely embarrassing as he'd mention him all the time when we were out and about. The nursery were convinced that we spent all our spare time playing bingo!! Fortunately now he'd rather use his imagination conjuring up imagery in books like Anthony Horowitz and Michael Morpurgo (both superb authors - especially but not exclusively for boys). Then my youngest ... staying with the canine theme - she just loves her 'Wolfy' and is a massive fan of any books concerning animals. My eldest - who has profound special needs, just loves to be read to and I'm thrilled that not only do I love doing this - but his younger siblings do too.

What a fab competition, would so love to win!

Our 3-year old has a few favourite imaginary worlds ... he would be the spaceship commander navigating through an asteroid field, or a superhero in a race against time with the baddies, flying through a tall skyscraper-filled metropolis (often I would be invited to be the co-pilot on the grand adventure). The spaceship itself is the sofa, with the sofa arm his command unit/pilot seat. When the ride is over, he (we) would land to take refuge from the evil space dinosaurs in his fortress/castle/secret hideout - this would be under the large dining room table, with the chairs forming secret tunnel entrances/exits.

He seems to have as much fun as I used to ... well, almost!

My 4 children (6, 9, 12 & 14) all play a game called "The Talking Game" it is a fantastical verbal journey not unlike those story books where you choose can choose different ending depending on the choices you make as you read the book. My second son usually acts as the games master and each of his 3 brothers has a virtual 'world' where they go on their adventures. Sometimes they even interact with each other within the game if they are in the same 'world'. They spend hours, or even days involved with playing or listening as the stories unfold and it has whiled away many a rainy afternoon or long car journey. This was completely instigated on their own and has even extended beyond our family when cousins and friends have joined in and then started their own versions with friends and siblings.

My daughter has an incredible imagination and always talks about her 'duckpond hous'. I'm not sure where this began but essentially it changes everyday. Some days it is a normal house full of 20,000 puppies, other days it has bouncy castle walls. Her 'totally not imaginary' sister and brother live there. (I don't remember giving birth to them) Their names frequently change, from Skeendoo to Mackba. I might start making her write books lol

My little girls world generally involved dragons and dinosaurs. Mind out of the way of the dinosaur mummy......

Dc aged 5 and almost 3 are a right pair and love to conjure up all sorts of magical fantasy lands. Usually these involve monsters and trolls and some kind of fairy or hero. They also like to be either kittens or puppies and make nests out of the sofa cushions and yap away to each other.

DD2 is obsessed with her friend Peeva (too much Ikea visiting I think). Peeva lives in China and often flies off to China with DD. Sometimes Peeva is a baby and sometimes she is older (80 ish). DD is her mother and Peeva has lots of friends in China. It cracks me up as she was talking about China before she even knew it was a real place.

DD3 has copied and has a friend called Bida.

DS1 is so obsessed with all things animal that it has entwined with our domestic life. We now have a 7ft paper ache girraffe in our dining room called Edward and he thinks its real. For a while he had a blow up dinosaur named Fred who he would make me talk to like a puppet whenever he was having his dinner.

My two year old has some lovely imaginary games that we play. She has a toy crocodile who likes fish and chips so we spend hours playing with her kitchen serving him food. He is very discerning.

My son like playing knights in the castle. He build up an imaginary castle using chairs and blankets and if his friends are visiting it can become very loud!

My 2.5 yo DD has a fab imagination, but my favourite at the moment is when she's in the bath and she turns into a mermaid, she describes all the sparkly fish, the rainbow coloured crabs and the pretty birds flying over head. She also swims into her special mermaid castle where she can hide from big sharks that are trying to gobble up mermaids. When she's in there, we have to whisper so that we don't give away the mermaid castle position for all the baddies. Pirates are also bad and want to steal mermaid treasure.

My 3 year old loves her dolls and playmobil, I love listening to her singing to them and talking to them, I hear her mimicking me occasionally with darling in the sentence!! Bless her!

We had a friendly bumble bee called Dania who drives a tiny yellow sports car and I was expected t make up stories about our little bee!

Huge imagination so becomes lost whenever/whatever she is playing and it can be hard to bring her back to the normal world of "do you want an apple or a banana with your lunch..."

Dinosaur World is our favourite at the moment. The Dinosaurs are all mostly friendly and have lots of adventures, but they sometimes get cross

My son loves to pretend he is in a world full of dinousaurs - im usually a t-rex!