Don't Buy Another Toy! Let Kids Get Creative During Summer

With summer just around the corner come long hot days and late evenings with lots of time for creative play.  With school letting out, spending more time at home is a great opportunity for kids to make things.  Constructing vehicles, houses and environments for favorite toys is a great way to encourage invention, problem solving and home-made fun.

What parent hasn't faced the dilemma of another long hot afternoon and been tempted to buy "just one more toy" to help everyone get through the long day?  A good alternative is to encourage kids to re-discover favorite toys by using them as a beginning for a creation.  This works especially well for those kid favorites like "take apart erasers" mini cars, "squishies" toy animals and all those other little treasures that seem to end up underfoot.

Your building supplies can be blocks, boxes, bottles or scraps of wood and fabric.  This is a great time to clean out a closet or share a hobby with your child.  The simplest materials often invite the most innovation.  Tape, staples and markers seem to be key ingredients providing much needed attachment and decoration.  Challenge kids to design a playground, park or home for a favorite toy and see what they can invent.

In the studio I am often pleasantly surprised by how many kids turn to toy and play design in their artwork.  We see many model playgrounds and water parks as well as toy games for American Girl dolls, and even furniture and accessories for miniature play sets.

For modeling at home, fimo and sculpey work especially well.  These oven-bake clays can be used to craft characters and accessories and work especially well for small details.  For younger kids model magic is another good modeling alternative that won't have to be baked.

Provide a bin or box to store items and encourage building on ideas over time.  A shelf or side table provides a good temporary display space and helps to celebrate the work.  Picture taking is also a great way to record built creations.  Print the pictures to write a story about the character and his or her adventures.  Some may even enjoy drawing a diagram or map of their house, park or playground.  Keep on the lookout for interesting supplies for building in packing materials, boxes, ribbon, string as well as natural objects.

Think back on what you remember building as a child, was it a fairy house of sticks in the forest or endless card houses on the living room rug.  Maybe you have special skills with designing paper airplanes.  Could you help craft a flying machine for that favorite hamster eraser?  Share your building stories and interests with your child and take an hour on a hot afternoon or evening to join in the building fun.  You may be pleasantly surprised the creative fun you can build together.