Growing Play
Disclaimer: These pages are not intended to provide medical advice or physician/therapist instruction. Information provided should not be used for diagnostic or training purposes. Consult a therapist or physician regarding specific diagnoses or medical advice.
Cardboard Box Road Maps
When all the fun has been exhausted from your cardboard boxes and the sides ripped from all the climbing in and out, flatten out the box and draw some roads for the toy cars to drive on. Add some play houses to drive up to for more imaginative play. Creating the road map is usually […]
Coins in a Water Jar
Here is a very simple activity that engages children of all ages. Instead of practicing putting coins or buttons in a bank, try putting them in a clear container with water in it. It is mesmerizing and pretty to watch them float to the bottom. Lightweight, colorful buttons were fun to watch. Fake coins were […]
Let’s Play Animal Hospital
Set up a pretend animal hospital. Be sure to include an examining table, areas for the animals to rest, cages and crates. The crates in this picture are containers or a storage cube turned on it’s side.Don’t forget to include all the props for examining the animals. Here are some suggested props besides a vet […]
Pretend Swing for the Doll
Make a simple doll swing out of a cardboard box for a child to play with. Hang it from a door frame or outdoors from a tree branch. You could use it for stuffed animals as well. Check out Pretend Play – School to open a pretend doll school.
Free Secret Missions for Pretend Play
Download this free activity page for your child to pretend to be a secret agent on a special mission. Want more secret agent ideas (i.e. secret handshakes, codes, more missions, lie detecting and more) for pretend play? Check out Playing Pretend – Secret Agent.
Family Cooking Wars
With fickle weather in upstate New York, our family has come up with some crazy ideas to keep us busy indoors. With five children ranging in age from 11 years to 16 months, you have to get creative to keep everyone interested. One thing that we all love to do is to participate in a […]
Pretend Shops
Recently on a weekend morning, the children thought up to play pretend shops. Each child created their own shop where they created prices for various services or items. They set up different stations in separate areas. I gave each child $0.50 to spend at the different shops. This lasted for hours. Here is what they […]
Play Outdoors Flag Hunt
This is a favorite outdoor game – flag hunt. Here is how you play: 1. Preparation: To make the flags, cut up four different colors of fabric or felt. Make sure you have one of each color strip for each team. We play with two teams so you need 2 of each color. If you […]
DIY Scratch Off Cards for Kids
The kids can make their own fortunes, game cards or activity ideas using a simple recipe of paint and liquid dish soap. After seeing this idea at Oh The Lovely Things blog, I thought this would be a great activity for the kids. You can either have them make their own or print our suggested […]
Sidewalk Chalk Puzzles
Here is a fun way to add some challenges to using sidewalk chalk. One person draws a puzzle on the ground. For example, I started by drawing a square, triangle, a hat and a random shape colored yellow. I provided the children with this clue… “The squirrel had yams”. The children had to guess what […]