Provide the Raw Materials
One of the reasons kids don't build their own forts or treehouses is that they don't have access to the necessary materials. Most families don't do their own remodeling or make their own clothes any more. Consequently, there aren't empty plastic tubs, bricks, scrap lumber, nails and fabric lying around for kids to exploit. Even if your family is one of the few that builds from scratch, the scrap materials often get recycled or thrown away for lack of space. Let your kids have first dibs at any “junk” building supplies. Consider scrounging them from neighbors or even purchasing some. If your city has a Habitat for Humanity ReStore, check it out.
Go Outside and They Will Follow
My daughter follows me around like a puppy and sets up shop wherever I am. I do most of my work at a computer which is in an alcove off the TV room. You can guess what she likes to do. So, whenever the weather is nice I take a laptop outside. It's better for both of us.
Get Away
Better even than going outside, is venturing out into the surrounding countryside on weekends. Let your child get good and dirty playing in a creek, digging in the dirt and making stick golf clubs to go with pine cone balls. Take along a few basic toys like a dump truck, sand pail and shovel. Make use of any cups, straws or spoons you pick up at the drive-thru or plastic bottles, fruit netting, and rubber bands from snacks you bring along. Just be sure not to leave any litter.
Encourage Their Play
If you child is busy playing, put off that trip to the grocery store. Let her stay in the tub imagining a mermaid underwater world as long as she will. Help him find extra sheets, blankets and clothespins to build a tent that covers his entire room.
If your child doesn't seem to know how to make believe, sit down with him and demonstrate. You don't need to tell him what you're doing, he'll be thrilled to have your companionship.
Find a playmate who has the imagination bug. Some kids just naturally seem to live in a world of their own creation. Encourage your child to play with someone you'd like him to emulate.
Clothes Make the Man
A few props can help inspire your child. The right hat or cape can transform your child into a fireman, super hero, nurse, cowboy, king or queen, bullfighter or construction worker. Play food can inspire a grocery store, restaurant or picnic lunch. If money is tight, make capes from towels or use snack-size raisin boxes, chip bags, and motel soaps and shampoos to fill the grocery shelves. Go to thrift stores or yard sales to get great bargains on other props.
Turn Off the Distractions
At least once a week, turn the TV, computer, and video games off for the entire day. It won't be long before you figure out better ways to spend your time.
Provide a Creative Environment
Sand, water, dried beans, beads and uncooked rice are all relatively inexpensive media to keep your child busy. Provide a funnel, scoop, measuring cups, spoons, sieves and the like and she'll be a chef or chemist in no time.
Mud, dough, clay, fabric and lumber scraps are great building materials for a budding architect, designer or sculptor. If you prefer commercial products, there's a multitude of choices from Play-doh to Legos.
Bring out the artist in your child with crayons, construction paper, dry noodles, glue, tape, glitter, pipe cleaners, toilet paper tubes, colored markers, paper clips, and buttons. Let your child's imagination run wild. There is no wrong art.
Children often find the box a toy came in to be more engaging than the toy itself. Great! Load her up with as many shoeboxes, egg cartons, moving boxes, margarine tubs,and empty oatmeal and baking powder cans as you can scrounge up. She'll make banks and mailboxes and rocket ships and who knows what else.
Stories and Books
Find books that demonstrate how to be inventive. Some that come to mind are “Bridge to Terabithia,” “Island of the Blue Dolphins,” and “Swiss Family Robinson.”
Make up your own stories together. In the car on long trips, in motels or camping, if you find yourself at bedtime without a book, invent your own stories. Feature your children as the star characters, preferably with them cleverly outsmarting bullies, witches or alien intruders using creative strategies. Let them add their own special touches to the story line.
Lead the Way
It's up to you as the parent to lead your children away from commercial play that has already been defined for them to a natural play that wells up from within. You might just have fun yourself devising ways to encourage them toward free, spontaneous play.
