Play Activities

Play Activities

Kids Play with Anything #18: Play with Old Clothes/Dress-up Play

While there are wonderful costumes and dress-up clothes available to buy, kids will also play with old clothes. Dress-up play is a timeless favorite.

dress-up playFiguring out ourselves and other people is a challenge, not just for kids but for grownups too. When kids put on clothes or costumes they don’t usually wear, they are also putting on a new person. They are seeing the world from a different point-of-view, from inside someone else. This is part of empathy and of relating to others. Not only are kids aware of other people, they are trying to be them.

Kids don’t need magic wands to transform themselves into superheroes, warriors, pirates, princes, princesses, fairies, monsters, firefighters, or anything else. They only need a box of dress-up clothes. These can be pre-made costumes but they can also be worn out t-shirts, old dresses, jackets, shoes, and even towels. A few accessories like a long paper tube to be a sword or lightsaber, a small bag of bottle caps as coins and jewels, or old socks with the toes cut off to be wristbands of power, add to the play.

Kids may also dress up and pretend to be the other gender. It’s not unusual for boys to dress up as a girl, and for girls to dress up as boys. This sometimes alarms adults but according to Children’s Services Coordinator, Greg Uba, at Connections for Children,

“When children are allowed to play out side their roles, it gives them the opportunity to go beyond gender bias. Crossover play allows them to develop skills they traditionally aren’t encouraged to develop.” (A Place of Our Own: Cross-over Play)

Kids need to explore their own abilities and emotions. They try out what it feels like to be strong and powerful as well as to be caring and of service to others. Dress-up play supports the development of social and emotional skills, problem-solving, visualizing, complex language, and more.

dress-up playSort thru the closets at your house to find items for dress-up play. There’s nothing old hat about dress-up play, is there?

Play Activities

Kids Play with Anything #16: Child’s Play with Blankets

This next post in the series of how kids don’t need toys to play, because they play with anything, uncovers play with blankets. No cover up here. (Pun gleefully intended.)

play with blanketsOne of the first and most universal ways to play with blankets is the game of peek-a-boo. Babies and older kids love to hide in plain sight. At first, this now-you-see-me, now-you-don’t is a way to discover people and objects don’t disappear just because we can’t see them. Later, the game becomes a way to confirm a connection to others. Kids feel reassured to know we will look for them and will find them.

A favorite way to play with blankets is to build a blanket fort. A really big blanket can be draped over a table for a very quick and easy fort. Kids can make a much more elaborate one using the sofa, several chairs, or a clothesline. Not just inside the house, but outside too, kids may be able to rig up one with blankets, trees, and poles.

play with blanket fortA blanket can be an outward expression of caring. Kids wrap up dolls and stuffies with blankets. One young girl followed grandpa’s example of tender loving care for his tractor and so wrapped up her toy one and cradled it in her arms.

The fairy tale of the princess and the pea, who had to prove herself is also a story of how it feels when other people doubt our word. We emerge from the experience covered in emotional bruises like the princess when others can’t see us for who we really are. No matter how high the pile of blankets, there is deep pain. Children with high sensory-needs often like a heavy pile of blankets. The weighted sensation helps them deal with sensory information, either stimulating or calming them. A blanket can also provide a feeling of security. A child’s play with blankets is meeting both physical and emotional needs.

play with blankets

Play with blankets isn’t undercover, even tho kids might be. It’s just so obvious we can’t see it. Do you remember hiding under the blankets with a flashlight so you could read or tell ghost stories? Does your child have a favorite blanket? Do you?

Play Activities

Kids Play with Anything #14: Child’s Play in Puddles

Good thing kids are wash, towel dry. Child’s play in puddles sometimes needs a follow-up bath but it’s certainly fun. The learning can be splashy. Puddles are a sort of magnet for kids. They call out to them in a voice adults can’t hear, begging kids to come and play. Resistance is futile. The only influence adults have is occasionally getting boots on feet before kids answer the call.

play in puddlesPuddles are made for splashing. Adventurous kids like to stamp forcefully in puddles while more timid ones will slowly work their way in. Deep or shallow, there is an element of mystery. What lurks at the bottom of the puddle? Is it deep enough to go over the top of boots or shoes or not?

rainy day fun puddleWhile feet respond to puddles first, hands also like to explore and splash. Sticks and leaves can be added to puddles to see if they will float. If the puddle is fairly deep, kids may like to throw in rocks to see and hear the splash.

play in puddlesIn cold weather, ice sometimes forms on puddles and who can resist the challenge of trying to crack the ice? Kids sure can’t. Oil in a puddle creates a swirling rainbow of color. Puddles also come in a variety of shapes. Although one end might be skinny, it’s more challenging to try and jump over the wide part.

rainy day fun puddleKids will create different ways to play in puddles and there are different things to learn. Think of the vocabulary of a puddle: deep, shallow, wide, murky, muddy, clear, and more. There’s science too as kids explore float and sink and how they can affect a puddle. Puddles invite questions as well as splashing: Where does a puddle come from? What makes a puddle? Kids learn about themselves in terms of their powers and their limitations. They might be able to affect the size of a puddle by putting their foot across the water creating it, but only for a while. When two or more kids are playing in puddles, they also need to learn some social skills. Splashing others may or may not be okay.play in puddlesChild’s play in puddles is also a way to connect to nature. For kids, there’s no muddle about puddles. Any puddle play for your child?

Play Activities

Kids Play with Anything #12: Child’s Play with Sand and Dirt

Sand and dirt. Play with sand and dirt is as old as… well, as old as the hills. Children’s play is sensory, exploratory, creative, and imaginary.On the sensory level, our whole bodies feel the texture and temperature of sand and dirt. Unless some gets into footwear, clothing, and eyes our skin enjoys the touch, especially … Continue reading Kids Play with Anything #12: Child’s Play with Sand and Dirt →

Play Activities

Kids Play with Anything #11: Child’s Play with Bubbles

Although bubbles and soap solution are sold as toys, they can be made at home, so still count as play with non-toy stuff. Does your child play with bubbles?Usually done outside, blowing bubbles is a magical activity. There are many recipes for making bubble solutions easily and inexpensively. Bubble wands can be simple plastic sticks … Continue reading Kids Play with Anything #11: Child’s Play with Bubbles →

Play Activities

Kids Play with Anything #8: Child’s Play with Movement Activities

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Kids have to move. No surprise to parents or caregivers. Play with toys can’t compete with play with movement activities. And so, kids will play by moving their bodies. Why is movement so necessary? The brain doesn’t finish growing before birth or the head would be too big for the available space. It especially doesn’t … Continue reading Kids Play with Anything #8: Child’s Play with Movement Activities →

Play Activities

Kids Play with Anything #7: Child’s Play with Mud

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Kids don’t need beauty treatments—which is an adult excuse for playing in mud, and they don’t need excuses, either. Kids just simply play with mud.Dirt + water = mud is a magic formula for sensory and imaginative play. Hands, feet, and sometimes whole bodies feel the ooey, gooey slipperiness of mud. While stirring, squishing, pouring, … Continue reading Kids Play with Anything #7: Child’s Play with Mud →