Creative activities engage a child’s imagination and promote inspiration and relaxation. It is what children do when they are just being children, and there are hundreds of things you can do to support creative play in your home.
Do not see the term ‘creative play’ as a challenge to find the most unusual activity that will cost the earth and eat up all your time to prepare. This creative time for your children can be spent doing the simplest of things, as your child’s imagination can take care of the rest, and with a larger family, utilising every penny is very important. A child is engaged on a creative level every time they draw, paint, read, build with blocks or play with sand.
Reading, for example, helps your child to encounter a world outside of their own, and they can express these new experiences in drawings and paintings. Creative play through drawing and painting can also strengthen fine motor skills which promotes a physical benefit to play time. Whether your child is using a colouring book, getting creative with coloured paper or painting on your walls (not advised!), they will be expressing their imagination in a fun and entertaining way.
Pursuing creative activities with children is a healthy way to help them grow and learn, and it is also a great way to bond with them as you enjoy some relaxed playtime. For a little while you can forget the housework and day to day worries, and just enjoy your children, as they find endless amusement from a cardboard box, or get caught up in the intense concentration of building castles in play sand.
There are many benefits to sand play, the first being how fun it is! Running it through your fingers and building castles never gets old, even when you’re all grown up. Along with the fun factor there are also other benefits to sand play such as the development of the sense of touch, through the texture of the sand. While paying with sand, a child also develops hand-eye co-ordination, experimentation with volume, weight and measurement. Who knew there were so many benefits to child play? Forget the gym, get the sand box out.
Creative play is so important to your child’s development, both physically and mentally, and for relaxation. Let them explore and experiment in your home environment and you will see the benefits before your eyes.
Get crafts to your door
toucanBox
toucanBox is an award-winning subscription service that sends a fortnightly or monthly box of creative, science and craft activities to children aged 3 to 8 years old.
Each box is themed and contains everything needed to keep children engaged for hours in an educational and creative way. Boxes include all the materials to complete the projects, colourful step-by-step instruction manuals and a book.
Boxes are available in 3 sizes:
- Petite toucanBox: delivered fortnightly, contains 1 activity and fits through the letter box (£5.95 incl. P&P)
- Grande toucanBox: delivered monthly, contains 2 activities and a book (£12.90 incl. P&P)
- Super toucanBox: delivered monthly, contains 4 activities and a book (£19.90 incl. P&P)
Each project is designed to stimulate children creativity and curiosity and to encourage key development skills such as concentration, numeracy, fine and gross motor skills, and problem-solving.
The boxes are tailored to suit each child’s own development stage, and the content of the box will differ accordingly.
Additionally, the toucanBox website also provides online resources for extra discovery around the month’s theme and additional craft ideas are available each week on the toucanBox blog.
Click here to order your toucanBox.
Baker Ross
Baker Ross have been providing craft goodies for years now and have complete craft packs ready to go whatever the time of year. You will often find discount codes on their home page too so whether you want to top up your craft supplies or order in seasonal craft kits, Baker Ross offers excellent value every time.
Click here to find the latest discounts on the Baker Ross home page.
Weekend Box Club
Weekend Box deliver a special box containing fun activities: something to make, something to explore, something to cook and something green. You can choose between their Mini Box containing 2 activities for £4.95 per box , or the Bumper Box containing 4 activities for £7.50. They run regular offers whereby you get the first box completely free or for half price and you can cancel at any time. Click here to try out a Weekend Box.
