We love play ideas that are cheap and simple!
I love reminding parents that meaningful play doesn’t need to involve a ton of work on their part and that keeping your kids engaged in play doesn’t require buying new toys! There are so many creative ways to use the toys you already have and change up the context to make them exciting and feel new! Check out more ideas in our post MAKE OLD TOYS FEEL NEW
One of our favorite ways to reinvigorate old toys is to change their environment by taking inside toys, outside! We have a giant tub of toy cars that almost never get played with, but by taking them outside and designing our own sidewalk chalk roads the toy cars were suddenly a favorite toy again.
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MATERIALS FOR SIDEWALK CHALK ROADS
- Cars (or trains)
- Sidewalk Chalk
WAYS TO PLAY WITH SIDEWALK CHALK ROADS
Initially I thought my preschooler would want to drive the cars around the track, but he was more interested in helping draw.
I drew the loopy road onto the driveway and he insisted on drawing the yellow line in the middle which ended up being a great prewriting activity and involved his full body- hopping from one part of the track to the other.
Then he wanted to draw houses and grass and signs and once his village was complete he drove the cars around engaging in some pretend play by making the cars talk to each other (little sister joined in for this part)
Later in the day he revisited the track with his bicycle and tried to drive around the road, ditched the bicycle and tried to run the track on foot.
For some added color matching practice you can draw “garages” in different colors and challenge little ones to drive and park the matching cars there.
For older kids, you could shape the road like their name in cursive or challenge them to draw the road by themselves.
DID YOU TRY IT?
Let us know what your little one thought of these sidewalk chalk roads in the comment section or show us your play by sharing your photos on Facebook or instagram and tagging @ureadyteddy or #ureadyteddy
We'll share our favorites in our stories!
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