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Family Focus

Staff photos by Angie Bean

Sarah Phillips, 3, of Oak Park whispers to her grandma, Marion Phillips of Bloomfield Hills.

Two local women have pioneered creative play for children for 20 years.

Shelli Liebman Dorfman
Senior Writer

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n the past couple of years, Jackson and
Grant Blau of West Bloomfield have
been everywhere — from China to
Mexico. And, oh, adds their mom, Michelle,
"They've also been to outer space."
The boys — Jackson is 6 and Grant, 4
— both did their out of the box, inven-
tive traveling through the Images and
Imagination program.
According to owner Marion Phillips
of Bloomfield Hills, the Blaus are among
"hundreds and hundreds and hundreds"
of 31/2 to 6-year-olds who have attended
the hands-on creativity program, which
this year celebrates its 20th anniversary.
In implementing a different theme for
every week of their program, Phillips
and her business partner, Fran Wolf of
Farmington Hills, can often be found
slithering on the floor like snakes or lath-
ered in shaving cream with a class full of
imaginative youngsters. "We will do pretty
much anything," Wolf said.
Originally from Mexico City, Phillips
said, "When I moved here, I felt kids in
this country were being pushed to get off

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the bottle and learn to read. There was
no time for them to learn by just being
children, to open their amazing, curious,
creative minds."
So she decided to create a place for them
to go, but, "I saw I couldn't do it alone. A
mutual friend introduced me to Fran."
Together, their program began with a
bang and kept on growing. During the first
session, there were 23 students divided
between three classes held in the basement
of Phillips home. "We spread the word
by putting flyers in mailboxes of houses
that had swings in the yard," Phillips said.
"Within a year, we had 90 students."
Classes are two hours long, one day
a week, and are offered Tuesday and
Thursday, mornings and afternoons.
Sessions are 10-12 weeks long and are
offered four times a year.
"Everyone is an individual thinker
— in a place where there are no wrong
answers:' Phillips said. "Everyone learns at
their own speed.
"We don't give kids enough credit; they
are extremely bright and they have to
learn by being children."
That learning may come from creating
a puppet theater where all the charac-

ters start out as solid-colored mittens or
gloves and become fire trucks and flow-
ers through the children's imagination.
Past themes include being carpenters
and builders, visiting a pet store, being a
geologist digging for dinosaur bones or
going on a safari. Even a restaurant can be
a theme.
"When they play pizza store, they have
to learn where food comes from and
take turns being waiters and custom-
ers," Phillips said. "They learn when we
go there, the pizzas are not just laying
there for us. The thinking process is very
important."
So many themes have been created at
Images that Wolf said, "You can come to
our classes for 2 1/2 years without repeat-
ing any of them."
The program began when Phillips
youngest child was in kindergarten and
sometimes attended Images. Now four of
her five grandchildren have been in her
classes.
Other grandparents have joined in as
part of Special Person's Day, spending an
entire class with their grandchildren, hav-
ing a scavenger hunt or making a scrap-
book together.

But most classes are spent delving into
a theme, which often includes a pretend
trip. "We've been to many different coun-
tries and have traveled through the U.S.
on a train ride Wolf said. And this fall the
classes will be going to Israel.
"For every theme, we set up the class-
room with different props:' Phillips said.
"When we took our pretend trip to China,
the room became an airplane. We talked
about what we needed to do and then we
pretended to pack a pretend suitcase."
With a computer-printed ticket, the
group boarded an imaginary plane. "We
buckled our seat belts, put the luggage in
the compartment above, made the sound
of the motor — we imagined we were in
the air."
While flying over the ocean, the children
described what they saw out the window.
"After a while, it's easy for them to
repeat what was said:' according to
Phillips. "So they must think of something
different. We prompt them with questions
to start them thinking:'
Whatever the theme, Phillips said, "We

Imagine That on page 30

August 16 • 2007

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