Fun idea I hope.

[suey1973]

Just came home from shopping and running errands.   With all the family here for Thanksgiving I like to come up with fun things for the cousins, and nieces and nephews.   This summer I got a nice sized wading pool,  slip n slide, and lots of little outside toys and games.    Today I came up with the idea for dress-up.   Halloween costumes were 90% off.  That meant that they cost $3.00 or $4.00 each!   I picked up several that I thought would be appropriate.   I'll add them to the ones my kids wore and put them in an old suitcase for the kids to play with every time they visit.   Anyone have some other good ideas?   The kids are 2-7 years old. 

[Kay/NC]

Neat ideas! Perfect timing, too.  

I'll have to remember this in years to come.  It will finally give purpose to the old lady's steamer trunk with fittings inside, that I dragged home from a sale.   

Be sure to give them a mirror to consult while they are dressing up...and take pictures. 

Dressup used to be a ball, along with putting on our own plays.  We would perform for our aunts and uncles...one house of cousins was really creative at doing this, and was always my favorite bunch to visit.  We had a collection of old doll clothes there, too. and dressed up their cat and pushed him around in a doll carriage.    He was a very patient kitty. 

Their horse barn in the backyard was like Disneyland to me.  Old wood cookstove stashed there, so we played house, which kept us out of my aunt's hair.  These kids are a bit young to be off on their own, of course, but having their own haunt would make gatherings really special.   

 One thing we did - were a bit older than those kids - was to build a "fort" out of old peanut sticks...stacked like kids do popsicle sticks.  It made a makeshift "cabin" that we virtually lived in for days on end. 

Anything the kids could have to make a pretend playhouse...maybe a refrigerator carton from a local store?  Markers, paper and glue to decorate it. 

Puppets can be fun, too, if you have a few orphaned socks, some felt scraps, etc., that could be used to make features and faces on them.  A puppet theater is easy to make, out of a box and a scrap cloth for a curtain. 

I make a homemade playdough that puts the commercial stuff to shame.  Makes great pretend cookies, with a few cutters on hand and a low tabel to work on.  I guess play kitchens are politically incorrect now, but playing house is still good for kids, I think. 

If you are a cookie baker, maybe bake some sugar cookies ahead, and let them paint them with colored frosting and small paintbrushes. 

Crafts departments or store ought to have some fabric markers, and letting them decorate and personalize a tablecloth that could be used again and again, over the years as they grow up, could be fun.  A cheap sheet could work for this, at very little cost. 

Scrapbooking is big now, so maybe start a family holiday memory book? Since you can print photos immediately at home now, that makes it easy to do in the moment.  Stickers and pretty papers make it simple. 

I'll think about ths one some more...my kindergarten teaching days were a LONG time ago! 

[wt510151]

Oh how I remember my days when I was young at a relative's house. Would sit under one of those old tables that had cubbies where the legs were attached (cupboards). Chairs would be pushed in on one side (refrigerator). That would be my "house" there. Also three chairs set together would be the "store" in another area of the room. The dolls' bed would be the treadle on an old sewing machine (drawers were locked). Had wooden blocks with pictures on them to signify the foods and wooden bottles from an old game to signify the beverages. I know I had such a crazy imagination at that age. Never painted pictures or played with playdough at home. Probably because Mom didn't want to clean up the mess or we were too poor. Take plenty of pictures. Time goes so fast.

[Kay/NC]

That's probably the best thing about creative play...it allows a child's mind to do wondrous things.
Things can be used for purposes that only the child would understand...I remember laying a cardboard box on it's side, clipping clothespins all along one edge, and playing that " piano" like Jerry Lee Lewis.
Chairs in a row were my train, and stuffed animals passengers. A stick and a string made for a fishing game. Outdoors, a sandpile was a place I could stay busy in all day long.

As long a study are safe, kid's don't really need much in the way of toys to entertain themselves.

[Ruby Lou]

My son was really into trains when he was little so I made him a 'train" out of boxes and made a cab on one of them.  He sat in it with his engineer hat and bibs and his stuffed toys in the train car!  We did the card table tent alot too.  My barbies always had cardboard box houses and kleenex box beds. 

[linda/IL]

I don't have a lot of toys for the kids to play with-should really hit the garage sales-but more "stuff" for me to deal with.  I do have a few but one of their favorites is getting out my old wooden ironing board, the old pots & pans & plastic plates, and some plastic McDonald food I picked up somewhere.  They use my old adding machine & either play restaurant or get out some of my canned foods & play grocery.  It's the same thing I did when I was their age but other than the chaos it creates, it's their favorite thing to do inside.  I also have some old little dance costumes & the music to entertain with.  I tickled they can use their imaginations.

[Kay/NC]

The playing grocery store sure sounds familiar...the kids did that, and we did it as kids, too. Old machine like an adding machine or typewriter ( manual) can be a lot of fun.
I picked up a small 1930s vintage typewriter ( in a small carrying case) for $5 at an auction sale, and got the office supply store guy to install a ribbon on it for $7. Old telephones could be fun to play with, too...we used to take them apart to see the innards. cheap costume jewelry is fun to use in dress up, as are hats...men's and women's hats are great play props.

My mother had a corner bookshelf with a small desk- type shelf at one end. I would play librarian with that and the offering envelopes that my rshte kept as Sunday School superintendent...you come up with a lot of things to entertain yourself when you are an only child for six years.

I remember using the old treadle sewing machine to pierce index cards, and then would stitch them with yarn on a dull darning
needle. Also, I had a small blackboard on an easel, which was my schoolteacher play prop.

A pile of clean cardboard boxes can be fun to build with, play boats with, etc.

[soilbabe]

One of my kids favorite memories is of the elaborate miniature golf course they created in the back yard. Wading pool and slip m slide watertraps ...sand box sand trap...pvc pipe...tunnels....that entertained about a dozen kids for a whole summer...they raided the barn and garage for material and put their imagination to work.

[Kay/NC]

I find myself trying to figure out what srimulated this one...a toy golf club set? Some old clubs from a yard sale?

The overall theme of these posts seems to suggest that it doesn't take much but some castoffs from adult endeavors, plus openminded grownups who value imagination over a perfect lawn or house, to allow imagination to take root and blossom. if we stay of their way, kids. can have fun with almost anything.