Once Upon Imagination on the Move: Long Ago and Far Away
Once upon a time,
a young mother wanted nothing more than to stay home with her infant son. After several (less than successful) attempts to replace her meager childcare teacher’s income, she was sparkled with the best idea ever: start a fairy tale newsletter for parents and teachers!
She had years of experience working and playing with children and a lifelong love of fairy tales. She had researched fairy tales and children’s sociomoral development and wanted to share what she’d learned.
And, she knew that people who worked with children were hungry for playful ways to connect great stories with rich opportunities for children to make meaning of their world.
Thus, Imagination on Move was born.
Armed with a first-generation Macintosh 128 K computer, a vivid imagination, and a passion for promoting children’s play and exploration, the young mother embarked on the quest.
She would write a fairy tale adaptation every month, illustrated by artists, in newsletter form!
And, each month’s issue would include a plethora of art, music, movement, and nature experiences designed to ignite children’s curiosity and offer them opportunities to make deeper connections with that month’s fairy tale.
People would subscribe!
She could stay home with her baby!
It would be magical!
And so she set forth.
Writing stories and activities before her sweet son woke up and after he went to bed, she researched marketing and business planning while he napped.
She took out ads!
She interviewed artists and printers!
She was covered by the local press!
She did all the things!
When the first issue launched, in September 1984,
she had subscribers around the country, and around the world! Not many…but enough to convince her that she had found her life’s next chapter.
Dreams of becoming a fairy godteacher filled her nights, while her days bubbled with writing and the delights of her ever-growing son’s antics.
Sadly, there were a few dragons that she chose to blissfully ignore.
🐲 She knew…nothing…about running a business.
🐲 She poo pooed it when she read that it took most businesses 3-5 years to break even.
🐲 She was startled when she sought investors and they didn’t share her profound belief that EVERYONE would want to subscribe to “Meaningful Tales of Magic for Children of the 80s!”
The initial stream of subscriptions slowed to a trickle, money was tight, and writing was siphoning time away from being a mother as she tried to keep up with deadlines.
And so it was that after months of hard work and twinkling excitement, she stopped publication after the fifth issue, and refunded the balance of the money to her loyal subscribers.
Did she live happily ever after? Well, that’s a story for another day!
But she DID continue to learn about play, development, storytelling, and fairy tales as well as the ordinary magic of resilience, which she came to believe was the magic beans we all need to plant for children.
The time went in and the time went out and now it is another time.
And as the-retired-and-no-longer-young woman sat gazing into her bird-filled backyard, she pondered what she would do in this latest chapter of her life. It sparkled with possibility but felt, somehow, lacking.
AHA! she thought. I will start a monthly digital newsletter about fairy tales and how they build resilience! It will be linked to my website! I can do deep dives into fairy tales I love, and share creative ways teachers can promote resilience, self-regulation and emergent literacy through play!
And that is just what she’s doing.
Some would say I’ve come full circle, but I’m actually more of a spiral girl myself.
I’ve wound around the many twists and curves my life has revealed, sometimes dancing, sometimes crawling, and sometimes clinging to the edge by my gnawed fingernails.
Surprisingly, it never occurred to me until a few weeks ago that I was gazing down at an idea I first had almost 40 years ago.
This time, though, it is not a business, but a humble offering, created in gratitude for the many people and experiences I’ve been lucky enough to learn from…and for my own resilience.
I want to share my good fortune to nurture kids, and the people who love them. Same as it ever was, but different.
