With colder days on the horizon and more indoor activities on our radar, I have a feeling our boys’ already active imaginations are about to go into overdrive. Whenever we’re at home and the boys are left to their own devices to play and entertain themselves and each other, imagination games come out in full-force. As a mom, I get the biggest kick out of watching their imaginations run wild and listening to the scenarios and characters they create brings me a lot of joy.
Chase and Ryder’s imagination-related play is often based on stories we’ve read, things we’ve talked about or seen in our day-to-day lives and, of course, anything animal-related. And you better believe Rhett is already trying his very best to insert himself in the middle of all the imagination fun! For today’s blog post, I thought I’d round up a few of the boys’ favorite imagination games and scenarios in one place for any of you out there with kiddos on your hands who might be looking for some imagination game ideas to share with your children. I’d also love to hear from any of you out there whose kids love playing imagination games so I can share some of your ideas with our boys, too!
Playing Pretend: Our Boys’ Favorite Imagination Scenarios
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Animal Rescue
This is a game our boys play on repeat. They love to pretend to be animal rescuers and often look to me to tell them about a scenario involving an animal that needs help. They’ve “saved” sea turtles hit by boats, squirrels that fell out of trees, dolphins with injured fins… the list goes on and on! They often incorporate bugs or slugs or their stuffed animals into the game or will take turns being the animal in need of help and the rescuer.
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Post Office + Package Delivery
I’m pretty sure our whole family considers the delivery people who bring packages to our house friends at this point. The boys love sprinting to the door to bring packages inside and shouting “thank you” down the driveway so any imagination game involving mail and packages is right up their alley. I love this particular game because it tends to last a while since it can incorporate so many different things — writing letters, coloring, decorating old boxes, placing the packages on a cargo plane, delivering the packages to various rooms in the house, etc.
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Fishing
One of our boys’ favorite activities is fishing at the local marina but they also love pretend fishing! They’ll fish off their beds, down our driveway, in the bathtub… you name it! The best part of pretend fishing is that they aren’t limited to catching only sunnies or catfish like they are when we fish in the lake. They’ve nabbed pretend groupers, sailfish and even a great white shark! Lately they’ve been using extra-long string that they’ll throw off their bed as “fishing line” and then Ryan or I will tie random household items or toys to the end of their strings. They get the biggest kick out of trying to guess what random items they’re “reeling” in!
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Restaurant
Playing restaurant is a classic and one of the first imagination games our boys began playing. They love making us pretend smoothies, sandwiches, pizza, ice cream sundaes and more! (Sometimes they even make real things with our help in the kitchen!) The boys always seem to get a big kick out of “ordering” food from each other with strange or disgusting ingredients.
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Doctor
Who knew the doctor’s kit Ryder “gave” to Chase when he was a newborn would get so much use?! We’ve had no shortage of checkups and visits to the imaginary doctor in our house. These days Rhett is often the patient but he’s becoming a little less cooperative for Drs. Chase and Ryder every day.
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Vacation
Does anyone else out there have kids who are obsessed with luggage? Our boys get the biggest kick out of going into our closet and pulling out our suitcases and filling them up with their “travel essentials” — ya know, things like stuffed animals, flashlights, blankets, puzzles and games. They love playing vacation and cart their bags and suitcases all over the house on various trips and adventures.
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Dress Up Imagination Games
My mom got the boys a handful of costumes for Christmas last year and playing dress up is something that happens on an almost daily basis in our house. Their big basket of costumes gets a lot of use and the various costumes are the catalyst for so many different imagination games. We’ve also added all of their old Halloween costumes into the basket so they have a blast pretending to be everything from police officers and firemen to race car drivers, Paw Patrol characters, dragons and more. The boys definitely don’t shy away from blending costumes and we’ve seen more than our fair share of police officer dragons and race car driving puppies.
Question of the Day
What are some of your children’s favorite imagination games or pretend scenarios to act out around your house?
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My daughter is very into Moana, and her favorite imagination game right now is that the rug in our living room is the “ocean” and the couch is the “boat”. So she’ll toss the pillows onto the floor, jump from the “boat” into the “water” and try to rescue mom and dad from the water and pull us aboard the boat!
aw i love that! reminds me of a moana version of lava! 🙂
When my brother and I were little he had a Tonka farm set with various barnyard animals and a fold out barn. The animals were friends with my Barbies and dolls. Some days there was a storm or hurricane approaching and all the animals and Barbies had to get in the barn and batten down the hatches to protect them from the weather. Other days the farm animals, along with a whole host of other plastic animal figures, and the Barbies would go to boy/girl scouts. My brother had a list of the all the animals and he would take roll call. Haha 😛
hahaha! such an organized brother!
Random and you may already have it, but I think your crew would love the book in My Backyard by Valerie Giogas. Chase might be a little old for it but lots of science info/rescuing animals. It’s also a go to gift for me bc it’s not that popular.
just googled it because it sounded familiar but we’ve never read it! thank you for this recommendation!
One my 2 kids do all the time is take a box that is the size they can sit in and one night it will be a rocket ship and they draw on it with markers to put lots of controls and knobs and whatever they need for it to be a rocket ship, then the next night it becomes a monster truck, then the next night it’s something else. They will play with these boxes until they are falling apart, then we throw them out until the next time we have 2 big boxes. They came up with this game themselves and get super into it.
YES!!! oversize boxes are kid GOLD in our house, too!
i get this is a sponsoired post, but i’m a preschool teacher and there is no thing better than Melissa and Dougs dramatic play sets. the ice cream shop, the cookie set, and i could go on forever. also, it’s so easy to make your own dramatic play sets. for instance, give them an empty pizza box and some play plates and utensils. Or, give them empty shampoo bottles, an old blow dryer and brushes and they’ll love to play beauty shop-although boys may not be into this.
i think i know the exact ice cream set you’re talking about and our boys LOVE playing with that one at a friend’s house! it’s so cute!
What a sweet little post! ❤️ Good ideas!
So sweet! Love hearing about all their wholesome play!
This was such a sweet post! To answer your question–my kids’ favorite creative play at the moment is drawing their own comic books. My 1st grader cannot write many real words yet, but she makes panels and pictures to tell the stories and then just scribbles letters in “talking” bubbles which is so cute and then she’ll tell me what they “say.” My 3rd grader can write exactly what she wants to. She is becoming fluent in sarcasm and has some real zingers in her comic books! My 12 week old does not participate in creative play yet but just learned to grab an O-ball!
Julie, I am a local reader and published a book this summer called “The Color of God.” I wrote the book and my grandmother illustrated it (she is 94 years old)! Our goal in writing the book was to give parents a tool to start conversations about racial identity with their children. I would love to send you a copy for your boys if you had a PO Box or other address you felt comfortable sharing with me via email. I think they would enjoy it–the illustrations portray animals, nature, and even the solar system and the main character was written to be just as inquisitive and fun as your boys. 🙂 Anyway, I’d love to gift you guys with it since I have been reading your blog for many years and am grateful for the sweet stories you share with us about your children. In particular, I’ve been rereading and appreciating your “baby” posts as I am revisiting those early days for the first time in many years and can’t remember every detail from when my 7 and 8 year old were babies. Just let me know and I’d be happy to send one. 🙂