The square is a diamond.

It must be countless.... the number of times I have heard kids blurting out gems like these.

This one happened when my little one saw one of her scrabble game pieces simply lying on the table. She was looking at it from an angle and out came an excited "Look mummy.....the square is a diamond!" At that moment I just calmed her down with a "Yes, it is sweetie", but then I wondered where the hell had I lost this uninhibited, no-set-boundaries and no-defined-rules imaginative way of thinking. Why can't we look at our squares as diamonds?

The other day, she was trying to draw a TV on her drawing board - in circular shape of course, because she doesn't like straight lines. Anything is possible.

Logical thinking doesn't work. Lateral does. And three feet tall people are full of 'lateral'.

I recall reading an address by a renowned inventor. He was telling the children 'Don't listen to your parents and don't listen to your teachers.' His logic was - what was good at the time your parents were children isn't good enough now. Probably true.

When we were kids, I recall playing a game of words. Somebody says a word and you must immediately speak another word. The rule is, the second word must be absolutely unconnected to the first. Maybe this one should be a game for grown-ups.