My four year old is very creative and also hates being quizzed. For example, in preschool they introduced the solar system. After the first day or so he would refuse to name the planets if asked. However, I would over hear him talking to his snowman beanie baby about them. "Baby Snowman, I am going to take you on a rocket to Pluto. It is the furthest planet and it is very cold. You won't have to worry about melting. Some people say Pluto and Ceres and Eris are dwarf planets because they are small and don't follow the rules the other planets follow. I think that is mean. I am small and I don't like to follow rules too but I am still a boy not a dwarf boy. We'll have to avoid the asteroids in the asteroid belt and make sure we stay away from Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune but I made a map (drawing of solar system) so it should be easy". An hour later if asked where Pluto was he'd reply "I don't know"
One activity he really enjoys is easy and cheap. Get used magazines and catalouges and help him cut out pictures of things he thinks are cool. Get a cardboard box and fill it up with the cutouts. We once had thousands collected by several family members. Get him to randomly reach in and pick some out (10,20, whatever) and tell a story about those pictures. The results are always interesting. He also likes to make videos of his stories to look at later.
