Let’s imagine

This phrase symbolises children’s fantasy games and is an ideal name for the section of the museum devoted to crafting games: the world where “big things” are meticulously “made small”; taking up a challenge is one way children have of projecting themselves into the future. Crafting imitation objects enables them to pick up a variety of skills that can sometimes turn out to be paths to the real world of work, developing a child’s imagination and ability to share.

Children are keen observers of adult behaviour and their febrile imagination takes pleasure in imitating it. Role-playing games thus provide an interesting apercu into how society has changed through children’s eyes and how social development has conditioned children’s gaming environments and established a clear polarisation between urban and rural environments.