Small World Play 411
Children have amazing imaginations and come up with stories that even the best fiction writers could never invent. Kids act out their stories using toys, action figures, and even create a dialogue around their fantastic ideas. Having playtime like this is extremely important for our kids’ intellectual development. Research shows that too much screen time for children negatively affects their development in multiple areas and can even cause conditions like anxiety and eating disorders.
If you’d like to learn more about small world play and why it's important, we put together a brief guide below for you to read.
What is small world play?
Every preschooler engages in small world play at one point or another, and a lot of kids continue small world play for many years after preschool. Small world play is a style of playing that involves the child developing stories in their imagination, or recreating stories they’ve experienced in real life. Kids then translate their ideas using fun toys and objects to create the world that they’ve imagined. If you’ve ever taken a step back and watched a child act out their story with small world play, it’s kind of amazing. Their creativity is fascinating and adorable; you may even wish you had half of it, to be honest.
The benefits of small world play
- Small World Play Encourages Creativity and Emotional Development
- Small World Play Encourages Problem Solving
While it might seem like your kids are just playing, small world play yields more benefits than only fun. Small world play encourages creativity and emotional development because their world will be unique to them. That means the kids are making all the big decisions about what their world will look like and who’s going to be a part of it.
One of the cutest parts of watching or joining kids in small world play is the dialogue they develop between characters and animals. Even though the stories and conversations they develop are cute, small world play expands their minds and social skills. Your kids also develop sharing and teamwork skills with small world play because many youngsters love playing with someone else, like their siblings. Besides, we both know that our kids could practice sharing with their siblings, right?
Of course, kids will find a way to have fun in any situation, thanks to their imagination, so why not help them expand that imagination? Now that you know what small world play is and why it's important, your kids need toys to help them make their small worlds a reality.
Small World Play Ideas!
So now that you understand the benefits and importance of small world play, let’s look at a few ideas for creating a small world for your kids to play in using a variety of their own toys and household items.
Small World Play Idea 1: Sea Creatures
Either grab a bag of sea creatures from our store or ones your child already has and build a small world for the animals to swim and play in. Go to the beach and bring back real shells to add to the small world as well.
Small World Play Idea 2: Dinosaurs!
Build a paper mache volcano and let your child bring their dinosaurs to roam the terrain. This will also help teach them about making a science project!
Small World Play Idea 3: Mythical Creatures
Using cardboard, create a castle for your knights to defend against the dragon! Or help your kids paint a backdrop of a mythical world where they can create their own stories.
Implement Small World Play With Your Kids Today
Whether your kids would love dinosaurs, farm animals, or sea animal toys, Safari Ltd. has a wide array of toys that we know your kids will love. We take pride in offering long-lasting toys because we know how hard kids are on their toys. And most importantly, our toys are safe for all children to enjoy. We have close relationships with all our manufacturers and suppliers and hold them to a very high standard. So what are you waiting for? Hop on our online shop today and get your kids some small world toys!