I was excited to team up with Very for a campaign about imaginary play. I am a big advocate of the value of children using their own creativity and resourcefulness whether it’s with toys such as the Melissa & Doug Super Smile Dentist Play Set. Children can pretend to do oral checkups like the ones they have seen at dentist Maidenhead and learn how to take better care of their teeth.

Or they can use everyday props around them. For example, a wooden spoon makes a great wand or microphone!

Mimicking Routines

Imaginary play is so important for children for many different reasons. At the age of 1 to 2 this type of play occurs as children’s thinking ability develops. It’s such a wonderful age to watch, seeing children start to mimic some of the routines they have seen. From experience with my own children, you start to see “meals” being made up in the play kitchen and toy tools being used to fix anything and everything in sight! Children like to imitate real life scenarios so toys that help with that are always appreciated.

Developing Valuable Skills

Imaginary play helps children make sense of the world around them and develop valuable skills. It was lovely watching the children playing with the Melissa & Doug Examine & Treat Pet Vet Play Set and seeing them being so nurturing and caring to the “poorly” soft toys. Who knows that initial imagination play might even develop into a future career as a veterinarian. I will have to update you in a few years!

Playing with dolls can help with empathy. A child might imagine the baby crying and then try and comfort it, gently rocking it back to sleep or giving it a bottle. All useful skills for future parenthood.

Trying Other Roles

Role play toys let children try out other roles and build up their confidence. They have to think for themselves how different things work. Whether it’s a doctor’s kit or an ironing set they can fine tune their skills ready for when they need to use them in real life.

Work Through Situations

Imaginary play can help children work through situations and make sense of them. My friends youngest has an upcoming trip to the dentist, the play set helped him become familiar with a setup that might have frightened him otherwise.

In the stories they make up with their toys children can also go through other scenarios they find hard to deal with such as having to share, being fair and how to navigate friendships. When your young you feel can feel quite powerless because a lot of choices are made for you by the adults. Imaginary play lets you take charge for a while.

Broadening Horizons

Imaginative play can broaden horizons for children. Suddenly having a Robo Alive Lurking Lizard Robotic Toy on your shoulder and you can pretend to be a naturalist like David Attenborough!

Features Of Toys For Imaginative Play

When choosing toys for imaginative play you want ones that are offer open-ended play. Basically, toys where they have as much freedom as possible in how they use it or what they create. An example we had with the Play-doh Kitchen Creations Magical Mixer set, was that one child made me a lovely cake, the other made himself a beard! It goes to show how unique child’s play can be.

It’s great when toys give children that freedom to really express themselves. There are no hard or fast rules! Just because it’s called a “Kitchen Creations” set doesn’t mean you have to keep what you make food based. I love that children use their imagination to create whatever takes their fancy! At one point the beard creator even had some Play-doh on his head as his new hair.

We unboxed the different toys and it was lovely seeing the children’s enthusiasm. A world of possibilities had opened up in front of them waiting to be explored. The Robo Alive Lizard soon made his way to the Vets for urgent medical treatment as his legs were going too fast!

Toy cars are a good choice for imaginative play because they are very versatile. The cars were lined up, they were sent to a car wash, they raced, they did stunts and they were even dotted around the sofa to see if they could balance!

Toys for imagination play can be very simple because children will bring them to life themselves. These boys were excited about Robo Alive Lizard even before he had batteries added. So, you don’t have to always play the toys with the flashiest lights and loudest sounds. Children will fill in the gaps or even come up with something completely different!