Getting Creative At Home

by Jeff Bogle | More from this Blogger

You may have noticed that I often tend to focus on creative ways to play at home, as a family. That is directly related to the fact that we are not the over-scheduling types, leaving us plenty of time at home together to be silly and find interesting ways to entertain ourselves.

On a recent Sunday morning, my daughter and I were on my king bed playing with Mr. Potts and the rest of the Chitty gang. She was pretending that they were going potty, taking naps, going down slides and having a picnic. As she was coming up with new activities for them, I was scrambling to find the devices to facilitate the fun. For example, my wife's long body pillow was folded in half, becoming a gigantic slide (relative to the size of the characters). I then learned that one of her figurines had to make a poopy (oh, the things that amuse a two year old!) I found, hiding just under the bed, one half of a purple Easter egg that our kitty cat was using as a toy. My daughter gleefully used that holiday leftover as a potty seat for the entire Potts family, including Edison the dog. After each use, I pretended to wash out the "seat", like we do with hers. It was pretty hilarious.

Next, it was lunchtime. She pretended they ate a picnic of chicken, carrots, lettuce, strawberries, and pineapple (the same menu enjoyed by the carrousel animals when they return home for dinner). We used some of her old baby bowls and spoons and fed the entire gang like infants. She imagined that Mr. Potts spilled some of his food on his nice jacket meaning the purple egg was called back into action, only this time it was a washing machine! From then on he wore a bib I quickly made from a two-inch square of paper towel. I folded it and cut a little square in the middle so it would fit over his head. She thought it looked more like the cloaks used at the hairdresser, so she decided the entire family (and mommy and daddy) needed a haircut!

So much fun can be had with just a little free time, a dash of creativity and those odds and ends we all have hiding beneath our beds!

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Learn more about Jeff Bogle

Jeff is married to a lovely redhead and is fortunate to have in his life an amazing young lady, age three.

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