Do you want to encourage your children to engage in imaginative play?  In that case, I’m generally of the theory that less is more.

Kids do not need fancy costumes or toys in order to pretend.  While this picture shows my son thoroughly decked out in a costume, kids can have just as much fun without such things.  Dirt, sticks, rocks, and anything else they find outside are generally enough.  In fact, in my post The Work of Imaginative Play, the kids found everything they needed for a rather elaborate imaginative setup by the side of a hiking trail.

As for things to have around the house to encourage imaginative play, here are some of my favorites:

1. Books.  Immerse your child in stories, and it will become second nature for them to act out the action, to imagine alternative endings, or to transpose the characters into new situations.  If you need a place to start, here are our favorite Snow Books, Chapter books with strong female characters, Picture books with strong female characters, books for 1-year-olds, as well as a few singles: The Gruffalo, Woolbur, Something from Nothing, Pete the Cat: I Love my White Shoes, Zen Shorts, and Omnibeasts.

2. Play silks.  These get used as costumes.  They get used as scenery.  Sometimes the red one becomes a fire, or the blue one becomes a lake, and so on.  They are super lightweight, so they get used as kites, parachutes, and other such airborne objects.  My boys use the bigger ones in fort construction projects.  The silks function as stage curtains or props in magic shows.  And on and on and on.  We first got a set of play silks when my oldest son was an infant (they’re super easy for a baby to wave around), and they’ve been in use ever since.  We have this big silk, as well as a bunch of smaller ones like THIS.

3. Cardboard boxes.  My kids have found hundreds of uses for empty cardboard boxes.  In fact, the recycle bin in general is a great place for kids to find inspiration.

4. Costumes.  While kids don’t need fancy costumes in order to pretend, my boys have a bin of odds and ends that get used as costumes as well as some actual costumes we’ve accumulated over the years.  It includes a cat costume I sewed for my oldest son (now worn by my younger son); some Mardi-Gras beads they received at a Cajun restaurant and for free at a fair; a few pre-made costumes passed on to us by friends; a fire hat my son received when he toured a fire truck; a purse, belt, and some scarves that belonged to a grandmother and a great-grandmother; some costume jewelry I no longer wear or that came from a grandparent; a couple old hats; a lei made of silk flowers; and other such things.  None of them are fancy.  You could most likely find an assortment of things that would be wildly popular simply by cleaning out your closet and/or drawers (old shoes, hats, jewelry, dressy clothes, etc).

5. Old kitchen utensils and dishes.  My kids use an assortment of old cooking utensils in their sandbox for all sorts of purposes.  When my grandmother was cleaning out her kitchen, we took all sorts of plastic and metal utensils for my boys to play with.  An old mechanical egg beater, a couple of strainers, a set of plastic measuring cups, several different size plastic bowls, some large spoons, an old pot, and so on.  These get used in so many different ways (and become parts of cranes or factories or in whatever other way their imagination fancies).  Sometimes they even get used to prepare pretend food.

6. Stuffed animals and puppets.  My 5-year-old uses his stuffies in all sorts of ways.  He loves to talk to them, bring them on adventures, have them act as characters in his play, and listen as they tell him stories about their own experiences (that is always really interesting to hear about).  My boys love Folkmanis puppets because they’re beautiful and well made.  They like Beanie Babies stuffies because they’re cute as well as the perfect size for carrying around.

7. Blankets.  Our store of blankets is routinely used in my boys’ play.  They use them to make forts, to set out a dance floor, to establish boundaries, to become turtles, to signify snow or water, to serve as a curtain for a performance, and on and on.

8. Used tickets.  My grandmother and aunt sent my boys several strips of used raffle tickets which they had bought as part of a fundraiser.  Those tickets became admission tickets for my boys’ performances.  They gave me a ticket in order to board one of their planes for a ride to visit California.  One of the tickets won me a prize when my kids put on their own contest.  They use them over and over again.

9. Art supplies.  When they don’t have a prop they may want for a particular type of imaginative play, my boys have access to all sorts of supplies to make a model of the object themselves.  Paper, pencils, cardboard, card stock, markers, scissors, crayons, tape (masking, duct, and clear), clay, glue, paints, and much more are always available for them to work with.

10. Time.  This might be the most important component of imaginary play.  A rich imaginative experience doesn’t happen in a small, discreet period of time.  For example, your kids are unlikely to set up a theater, make tickets, and put together a production all within a 20 minute period.  It all takes time.  That said, if you’re okay with leaving the mess out, kids often will return to the scene and utilize it again and again.  I see this over and over again when my boys build themselves houses or forts out of blankets and whatever furniture happens to be convenient.  Highly-scheduled children are less likely to find the time (or energy) to engage in such endeavors.

How do you encourage imaginary play in your children?