Dolls Build a pillow fort Superheroes Dress up as princesses Kings and queens Hospital Mummys and daddys Playing restaurant Make mud pies Car wash Playing shop Print out & stick on the fridge Fun and imaginative play ideas for you and your littles ones
1 2 3 4 5 Dolls This is a classic way to encourage your child to use their imagination. They can invent stories, create dialogue, go on adventures and even make outfits for their dolls. Indoor fort Let the kids stack up the couch cushions to create their very own fort. They can play soldiers or knights that must guard their castle against imaginary enemies. Princesses Your children can dress as their favourite Disney character using clothes and material from around the house. Making their outfits will encourage them to be creative and they ll also use their imaginations to act out scenes. Superheroes Make capes from spare material, let them wear underwear over their trousers and send them on a mission to save the world. Kings and queens Kids can decorate kitchen chairs to look like thrones and make crowns out of cardboard and tinfoil.
6 7 8 9 10 11 Mummys and daddys A classic role playing game for children you can even encourage them to do some chores as part of the game. Hospital Children can create symptoms, diagnose illnesses and cure their patients. They can even perform a surgery or two. Playing restaurant Let your kids cook and present you with a magnificent feast. The food can be invisible or made from paper, felt and whatever else you have lying around the house. Make mud pies This is a good way to get children outdoors. You can give them paper bowls and let them create mud pies with leaves, grass and anything else they find in the garden. Car wash For the budding entrepreneurs out there. Give your kids a bucket and sponge and send them out to clean the car. Playing shop Save old food boxes and cartons and let the kids set up their very own shop. They can create fake money with paper and write out their own receipts.
12 13 14 15 16 17 Treasure hunt Hide treasure somewhere in the house and create a trail of clues for the kids to find it. Encourage them to dress up like adventurers and pretend they re on a desert island or in a jungle. Snowball fight Make snowballs out of old newspaper and let your children dress up in their hats and scarves. Train driver Arrange pillows and couch cushions into a train. Every time your kids reach a train station, they can hop off and have adventures in the place they re visiting. Fairies in the woods If you live near a forest or an area with lots of trees, take your children there to hunt for fairies. They can bring fairy food (glitter) in jars to try and trap them. Toilet rolls Give your kids some toilet rolls and art supplies. Encourage to them to make objects out of them and then create a game around their creation. Bakery Your child can open their own bakery and sell their homemade play dough cupcakes.
18 19 20 21 22 Plays Encourage your children to write their own plays and act them out. Hang some material up and position your table lamps to shine on the children while they re acting to create the effect of being on stage Garden gnome Leave a gnome in your garden and encourage your child to invent a story around him. They can dress him up each day according to the weather and leave food out for him. Don t touch the floor Spread the couch cushions on the ground in the sitting room. Tell the children they can t touch the ground as it s water or lava or filled with snakes (you choose). Let your children pretend to be brave adventurers in a dangerous cave or even in the Arctic. Wolves Take the children on a hike and let them pretend to be wolves in the forest. They can howl, hunt and sniff out their prey. Tea party Invite teddies and dolls over for tea. This will provide hours of entertainment for your kids as they make conversation with and for their guests.
23 24 25 26 27 Hand puppets Let your kids make hand puppets out of socks and then put on a show. Animal masks Bring out the cereal boxes, string and markers and let your children make their own animal masks. Send them out into the garden to pretend to be jungle animals. Indoor camping Arrange the kitchen chairs in a square and throw an old sheet over it. Close the curtains, drag out the sleeping bags and start telling campfire stories. Have some marshmallows on hand to toast. Vet Get out the teddy bears and let your children play vet. They can diagnose the animals, keep them in for observation and nurse them back to health. Ballet class Make space in the sitting room so that your child can pretend they re in a ballet class. Prop a full-length mirror against the wall and create a bar for your little ballerina to stand at.
28 29 30 31 32 Mad scientist Fill some jars with mixes of water and various food colours. You can also create slime by combing two-parts cornflour with one-part water and adding in some food colouring. Let your scientists create something diabolical. Robots Give your children some cardboard boxes and tinfoil and let them make a robot friend or even create themselves a robot costume. Space travel The children can either be astronauts or aliens on a strange new planet. Let them make costumes out of craft materials for added effect. Explorer Take the kids out for a walk and let them pretend they re in a strange land. They can explore along the way and exercise their imaginations as well as their bodies. Pirates Turn the couch into a pirate ship and let your kids make eye patches, swords and telescopes out of cardboard.
33 34 35 36 37 38 Witches and wizards Send the kids into the garden to find twigs for their wands and create robes out of old sheets. Let them cast spells, dual or even pretend they re taking classes in Hogwarts. Make your own board game Give your children a big sheet of paper, some pens and dice. Let them come up with their own board game with different rules for each square on their board. Indoor picnic Lay a blanket on the floor and let the kids have a picnic. They can use their imaginations or you can serve real food to make a regular meal seem far more exciting. Post office Create post boxes from cereal boxes, make envelopes and stamps out of paper and have your very own post office at home. Fairytales Encourage your children to recreate their favourite fairytales. They can make costumes and act out the stories you told them growing up. Movie theatre Turn your sitting room into a cinema. Pull the curtains, dim the lights, have popcorn and sweets for sale and have an usher to show the kids to their seats.
39 40 41 42 43 44 Fashion shoot Set up a runway and let your kids dress up. Have a camera ready to take snaps of your little models. Crèche Set out teddies and dolls and let your kids run their own crèche. Encourage them to feed and play games with their children and don t forget they need their naps. Knights and dragons Give your kids cardboard boxes and tinfoil to make armour and send them out into the garden to hunt and slay the dragons. Reporters Turn your sitting room into their very own newsroom and let your children produce a newspaper filled with their imaginative news. Pop star Kids can put on their very own rock show. They can sing, play air guitar, mime instruments and make crazy costumes for the performance. Flower shop Children can pick flowers from outside or make their own fake flowers. Give them some paper cups and sheets of paper so they can set up a florist.
45 46 47 48 49 50 Cloud spotting When the weather is nice, encourage your kids to lie on the grass outside and see what shapes they can spot in the clouds. What s next? One of the children starts telling a story. After a few lines the next child takes over and so on until the story ends. The results are always fun and wacky. Shadow puppets Pull the curtains and face a lamp against a bare wall. Have your children make shadow shapes with their hands. You can even encourage them to make stories out of the shapes. Archaeologists Set aside an area in the garden and cover coins, old crockery and even fake dinosaur bones with sand. Give the kids old paintbrushes and spoons to excavate with. School Let your child play teacher and set up a classroom in the house. The other kids can be the students and take turns at being in charge. Teddy bears and dolls can fill up extra seats. Ice cream shop Kids can create their very own ice cream parlour at home. Use dyed cotton balls for the ice cream. You should probably have real ice cream on standby for when the game is finished.