Educational toys can spark imaginative play in a variety of ways. Toys that are undefined in some way, like a block of modeling clay or a block of wood invites children to engage with them, making them whatever they want. Some examples of imaginative toys include wooden blocks, toy tools and tool benches, toy kitchens, cooking sets, play food, puppets and the list goes on.
These educational toys provide imaginative play in a certain environment, topic or concept. With a set of wooden blocks you could build a cabin, a castle, or a fort. With hand puppets or finger puppets where children can pretend they are different characters and put on a show and they can even perform in a puppet theatre.
Role play is an important part of imaginative play as the children can pretend to do what they see others doing, they may have seen their parents cooking or performing handyman work around the house so it helps develop good habits if children have access to role play toys such as toy tools, kitchen sets and utensils and play food.
How to encourage imaginative play
If the children have their own playroom or in their bedroom set up an area for imaginative play it is a good idea to include modeling clay, blocks, toy kitchens, paper to draw on, crayons, and more. What is included will depend on the age of the child. Some girls love to pretend they are cooking and having a tea party so make sure that there is a set of dishes for this purpose. Parents should take the time and join their children in imaginative play using educational toys.
Put a map of the world on the wall or find a jigsaw puzzle of a map, let the child point to a country, and then take turns making up a story about that area. They could be a hunter in the African jungle and they could tell you about the animals they were looking for to give to the zoo. In the classroom, during art each child could be given a sheet of paper and crayons and asked to draw their favorite animal or to draw a loveable creature. This give the children free reign to use their imagination using simple educational toys to show everyone what their favorite animal would look like.
As you can see, educational toys for imaginative play do not have to be expensive, all they need to do is spark a child’s imagination and encourage them to be creative and you can educate with toys.
