It's so interesting to see how much variety there is in personal preferences!
My DS2.7's type of imaginative play usually centers around something he's built or a tangible new topic or social skill he's learning. For example, yesterday he used his Duplo blocks to build a bomb disposal truck and robot, and we acted out disarming a bomb. He's never seemed to like gratuitous imaginary play--there's always an underlying learning element to it, as though the drama crystallizes the new information in his mind, and then he moves on forever.
This morning, he built a fleet of trucks who solicitously took care of two of their friends who were ill. DS was sick for a few days, so he's internalizing how to care for a sick person. He wouldn't usually find that scenario interesting had he not been sick recently, I don't think.
We have a set of play pots and pans and a tool bench with plastic tools that he loved as a one-year-old but now totally ignores, yet he's always eager to help me cook dinner or do a real repair. We also have a set of beautiful Schleich animals that only ever seem to get used when DS is designing a building, or as fodder when he building his various machines.
Oh, and DS wouldn't do an art project to save his soul. He'd rather describe an imaginary scenario verbally, and have me take dictation, whereas I preferred to paint one as a child.
I think gifted children quickly see the futility in repetitive exercises that produce no meaningful (to them) output. Squishys' son's comment about pretending to be an astronaut sounds exactly like something my DS would say.
