Creative Play for Little Ones
Posted by: JoyChristmas of 1985 was a momentous occasion for my husband and I. Our first baby was 4 1/2 months old and we were SO excited to share this fun holiday with her! I woke her at 6 a.m. (yes, I AM crazy LOL) and we ‘helped’ her open her little gifts we’d bought. She was more interested in watching the pretty lights on the tree than the toys we opened! The next year, as a 16 month old, we KNEW she’d absolutely LOVE the toys we purchased! She opened the first one, set it aside and played for hours with the paper and ribbons it had been wrapped in. It began to dawn on us that we could have saved a great deal of cash just buying the paper and ribbon and forgetting the toy! LOL
We still buy toys for our kids, but we’ve found many times over, that the things they enjoy playing with don’t always come from the store. A few ideas we’ve enjoyed over the years that provide lots of room for imagination and easily fit into almost any budget:
Boxes Boxes of all shapes and sizes are fun for play. Collect an assortment of empty food boxes such as macaroni & cheese, cereal, etc. Open them carefully as you use the contents and then tape them closed. These are fun for playing “store” or for stacking and building small houses. Shoe boxes work well too. Mid-sized boxes, large enough for a child to sit in, become cars, beds, swimming pools, doll houses. Large boxes that come from furniture or large appliances make wonderful playhouses. Mom or Dad can cut doors and windows or just lay the box on its side to crawl inside. As a child, I played spaceship with a refrigerator box for days. Check at stores you frequent and ask if they’ll save boxes for you. We found apple boxes once and made a “car” for each child and let them drive their cars to the “drive-in”(family room) and watch a movie.
Play Dough Homemade play dough is easy to make and provides hours of creative play. I like this recipe:
Homemade Play Dough
1 C. flour
1 C. water
1/2 C. salt
3 tsp. cream of tartar
1 T. oil
Mix all together in saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until mixture clings together and forms a ball. The color will change from creamy to a darker, non shiny color. Pour onto counter and knead slightly. IF you’d like to add color, you can add a few drops of food coloring before cooking, or a package of unsweetened Kool Aid works as well.
I like to keep a vinyl placemat to use while playing with the play dough. Kids will have fun just with this OR you can add more fun by finding cookie cutters, rolling pin, cups or any little kitchen tools you feel safe letting your child use. Try rolling it out smooth and then discover the texture change when you press objects into it - try rough fabric, hair brush, old toothbrush, etc. When you’re done, pack it up in a plastic ziplock bag or a plastic container with a tight lid to store for next time. This keeps for a long time if you keep it air tight.
Make a Mosaic Give your child a piece of paper. (I like cardstock or construction paper) Gather several small items to use to create your picture - we like macaroni, different shapes of other pasta, unpopped popcorn, different types of dry beans, rice, buttons, etc. Drizzle glue (like Elmers type school glue) in patterns on the paper. Let the kids place their macaroni or other things in the glue to finish the picture. A muffin tin works great for keeping the decorating items separate while creating.
Make a collage Save some catalogs or magazines and depending on the age and skill level of your child, cut out several pictures. My 4 year old is able to roughly cut out pictures she likes. (with supervision of course - we’ve hidden scissors from other children this age to avoid self imposed haircuts LOL) Glue these pictures onto a piece of plain paper. You can get ambitious and use themes for your pictures such as “Things I love to eat” or “I love Yellow” or whatever your little heart desires. 
Buttons or Keys My Mom had a button tin. Inside were hundreds of buttons of varying sizes, colors and shapes. I spent hours sorting through these. I’ve since started my own button collection. I found quite a few around the house - extra’s that came with sweaters or shirts, cut from old clothing before throwing it out or relegating it to the rag box. I did actually purchase a few fun shaped buttons to put in and I’ve found a few at thrift stores. I’ve found my kids sorting by size, color, shape, number of buttonholes. You could string them on a heavy string or crochet thread. We started saving unused keys in another tin. We have all shapes and sizes. Old house keys, keys to items that have been broken or lost… this took longer to find that buttons. Even our 10 year old likes to sort through these. Keep in mind that small children could choke on these toys. We let the older kids play with them out of reach of our toddlers.
There are so many inexpensive options for creative play for children! I’m sure you have some of your own that you enjoy using and I’ll be posting more ideas in the future!
As food for thought in the meantime, here are a few of my favorite quotes concerning play.
Play is the beginning of knowledge.-George Dorsey
It is paradoxical that many educators and parents still differentiate between a time for learning and a time for play without seeing the vital connection between them.-Leo Buscaglia