AD | 4 ways to encourage outdoor imaginative play

When my youngest daughter ventures outside to play, I absolutely love watching her get creative. Witnessing those creative aspects flourish to have no bounds when playing. This could be on their own, or with friends. Either way, seeing those beautiful little minds in action is something truly special. They can create a farm from a box and daisies. Or pretend to be astronauts as they run around the garden in their cardboard space rocket. I absolutely love seeing outdoor imaginative play in action – don’t you?

The importance of outdoor play and helping those little minds go wild with their imaginations – is something amazing.

5 ways to encourage outdoor imaginative play

Throughout this post, I am going to share with you five ways to encourage outdoor imaginative play. I have loved putting this post together because it cast me back to my own childhood in a lot of ways. Recalling times my Dad playing outside with me, as we played army men and women, crawling in among the long grass as we hid from the enemy! Amazing memories and you can encourage those memories for your own children too, all through outdoor play.

It’s OK to get wet hands & dirty knees!

Kids cannot experience being kids without getting down onto the ground. Being able to crawl like army men & women, or rolling around and pretending they’re going down a hill! Maybe power sliding across the garden as they envision themselves as rockstars! They could even be leaping off their swing set to pretend to fly like birds! Whatever the reason for the grassy knees, soggy sleeves, and mucky faces – as long as they know it’s OK to get dirty through play, then that’s OK!

I mean, imagine getting down to the ground with your child, face to face play, and crawling around in the sandpit of the TikaTaka Town XXL climbing frame. Maybe you’re looking for toys that you’ve hidden in the sand, pretending to be excavators or archaeologists looking for dinosaur bones!

This climbing frame has a real tropical feel to it, adding to that imaginative playtime. Not leaving out the super swing and large tower playhouse!

Make a den! No parents allowed!

Making a special hideaway for just you & your friends is such a magical activity for kids. And it promotes endless imaginative play. Are you hiding from a monster in the forest? Have you been hiking up a mountain all day and you need to have a rest? Has the rocket you’ve just flown to the moon in, just landed! The list goes on!

I love that kids’ products these days have these additional parts to make the creation of a den possible. You could even think of it as a treehouse, which is way cooler!

The Jazzy Jungle Jam XXL for example. That wooden playhouse is everything! Add a little curtain, a cute little ‘no parents allowed’ {unless they have cake!} sign. Your kids could even form a secret handshake, which I hear is all the rage with kids nowadays. Either way, if you have a child, encourage them to build a den or create a secret club in their den/treehouse! It’s like a right of passage when you’re a child!

You can be whatever you want to be!

In the world of imagination, there are no limits. You could be a giant tiptoeing through a village, trying to make new tiny friends. Or maybe you’re a monkey swinging from tree branch to tree branch and rolling on the grass, as monkeys do! Maybe you’re a shell specialist and panning for new shiny shells in the sand {which Mum or Dad has hidden beforehand!} obviously.

With the Waterworld Wave XXL, all of these things are possible. You have the ropes to swing on and climb. It even has monkey bars! It has not one but two sandpits to pan for shiny shells, and standing on either of the two platforms you’d feel like a giant! Not forgetting the Captain’s steering wheel at the helm and telescope to keep an eye out for the Pirate Parents! Who are most likely about to tell you it’s time to come in for dinner and ruin all of your outdoor fun!

Let your child make the choices! 

If you are having some pretend play in the garden, at any point, allow your child to make the choices. Let them be the lead in the decision-making because this is a great way for them to build confidence. We all know that if we make a decision and the outcome goes well, we feel proud. And, if it doesn’t go so well, we can be a little bummed but we will re-evaluate our decision, take a new approach, and then have a successful outcome. It develops problem-solving as well as confidence and that’s why it is so important to allow your child to take the lead in imaginative play.

Those are 4 ways to encourage imaginative play with our child/children. In the comments below I would love to know if you have any cool and fun ways to encourage outdoor imaginative play with your children!

Disclosure: This is a paid collaboration with Wickey