16) Play Pretend Islands (30 Day to Hands On Play Challenge)

Inspired by the 30 Days to Hands on Play Challenge by Hands On: As We Grow and The Imagination Tree we started this morning playing pretend islands. Every day these two blogs are giving a different activity or prompt that anybody can do and encouraging parents to spend 15 minutes of uninterrupted time playing with their kids. We have been following along and playing everyday and loving it. I have to say that I normally am not the best about playing with my kids. I am good about taking them places and coming up with stuff for them to do but when it comes to actually sitting down and playing, I'm not so good. So this challenge has been really good for me. In just 4 days I have already noticed some changes. The daily challenges have forced me to focus on what I am doing and enjoy the time I am playing with the girls with out thinking about dishes laundry or email.
This morning the Bee and Bean were already in their dress up clothes before they had gotten out of their pj's and looking for something to do so I suggested we play pretend islands, the day 4 prompt. We decided to make our islands out of the pieces of a foam play mat. After just a few minutes of jumping from island to island to stay out of the water, the Bee suggested it might be better it we built a boat. So we put the pieces of the mat together to make our boat. We then spent a long time rowing the boat, fighting off crocodiles and pretending to sleep and snore as we floated down stream. One of my favorite parts about this challenge is that it gives an open ended starting point and some dedicated time to see where our imaginations are going to go!