Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Celebrating Our Free Play of 2012

My kids are always up to something- which of course, is wonderful and horrible ( for housekeeping) all at the same time.  :)  Here is a glimpse into M and G's creative play this past year.  I really enjoyed looking back through my pictures to find all of these.  It's so true that children really know how to have fun.
Lettuce Hats!
"Dyeing" string.  For days, the girls' favorite thing to do was to fill the kiddie pool with water, dissolve sidewalk chalk in it, and dip string in the colored water to "dye" it.  They had great plans for the colorful clothes they would make with their finished products.
Mattress Trampolines.  One afternoon after naps I heard a tremendous bouncing upstairs.  When I arrived in the girls' room I saw this scene.  They had stripped all of the covers off the top mattress and piled them below the bed.  Then they leaned the top mattress against the boxspring to make a kind of trampoline slide.  This arrangement allowed for jumping all the way down, rolling, and everything in between!
Shoe Buses.  Apparently, my enormous Crocs make perfect transport vehicles for little people.
Fishing in the Spinkler.  The drought the past couple of years has left lots of dead bamboo in our yard.  The girls grabbed this pole to use for a fishing rod.  

Smush Face.  This clear plastic sheet is actually a frame for children's artwork for display on the refrigerator.  (Very clever idea, by the way).  The girls though find it equally fun as a window for smushing their faces.  They love for me to take pictures of their poses and come running afterward to giggle at the results in the camera display.  
Pioneer Wagon.  I don't remember now what arrived in this large Amazon box.  But I do remember the fun the girls had using it and the packaging inside for a wagon.
Nativity Role Play.  The girls were very aware of the Nativity story for the month leading up to Christmas this year.  They were forever drawing manger scenes, cutting them out and dressing each other as characters in the story.  Here is a shepherd escaping to the bathroom.  
Free style Creations with leftover craft materials.  Such a fun, whimsical fellow he is.  I just love him!

What fun kinds of playing have your kids invented this year?  Please describe or give a link in the comments.  I know I would enjoy reading about them/ seeing pictures.

5 comments:

Sue said...

I love this post. As much as I love seeing your clever ideas, I enjoy seeing the kid's ideas even more. I think you have fostered creativity in them.

Unknown said...

What wonderful creative play opportunities your children have been doing! Here's to doing lots more of it in 2013 :)

Rebekah Patel said...

Thank you for sharing these moments of free play with us. So lovely.

These are the memories that both our kids and we will cherish for a long time. We do some planned activities and crafts, but almost every day when the kids share their favorite part of the day, it is usually that they liked playing in the backyard. I think providing children the time for for free play is just as important or maybe even more important than the planned stuff.

Cerys Parker said...

What creative ideas they have. It's just started to happen in our house and I'm loving every moment of it

Parihar Ramchandra said...

Women tops-An online shopping guide for apparel, shoes and accessories from the top worldwide retailers