Disclosure: This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #PlayWithPlaymobil #CollectiveBias

With school in full swing we are finally settled into a routine in our home. It was an adjustment to head off to Kindergarten and preschool for my kids this year, but they’ve handled it so well! With this new routine of school, one of the main goals in our house is to create a balance of school and creative play. Kids spend so much time in an organized and structured school setting that we feel it’s very important to maintain a balance and allow for plenty of free play at home. Creative play is very important for child development.

Hover over the tags in the photo above for more information about these toys and to purchase!

Some of my fondest memories of my childhood were getting home from school with my sister and just playing outside, or in colder weather inside. We often would play with our different PLAYMOBIL sets, our favorite being the circus set up.  Did you grow up playing with PLAYMOBIL? I love that my parents saved our sets from my childhood and now my own kids get to play with the circus set.

Here are 3 tips to encourage creative play and create a healthy school/free play balance:

1. You know your child best, but I do suggest getting homework done right away. If you’re lucky your teacher doesn’t assign homework to the younger grades and in this case you can skip this step 😉 I love hearing that more and more teachers are skipping homework in favor of offering families more time together and less time doing busywork. But, if your child is sent home with homework I suggest getting it done asap so that the rest of your evening can be spent freely and with family.

2. Fuel your children with healthy snacks. I find that my children come home from school and almost immediately are asking for snacks. Kids are growing and their school days are long so this is the perfect chance to offer them plenty of healthy snacks. We try to avoid sugar as much as possible and only use those types of snacks as treats on special occasions. Some of our favorite snacks are carrots, apple slices, granola bars (try this delicious and easy homemade granola bar recipe!) and popcorn. I make what my kids call a “snack tray” and just put a bunch of their favorite snacks on it and leave it out for them to pick at while they are playing.

3. Allow your children to play, play, play, then play some more! Seriously, free and creative play is one of the most important parts of childhood for so many reasons. Young children learn so much through creative play. We tend to be pretty minimalistic with toys in our home (although they accumulate quite quickly!). We have a book shelf lined with wooden toys, dress up clothes and of course, PLAYMOBIL. PLAYMOBIL has the most imaginative play sets based on real life (police and fire sets) and the fantastical world (such as modern day dinosaurs). Creative play with PLAYMOBIL helps develop both cognitive and social/emotional skills. As I mentioned above, these toys last through generations and are incredibly well built and the attention to detail is amazing. We have fun setting them up as a family, but it is also so much fun for my husband and I to watch our two boys playing with them together.

I love that a lot of our friends have different PLAYMOBIL sets so when we have play dates the kids love playing with the other sets and having fun with them. My boys’ are obsessed with the Hidden Temple with T-Rex right now, anything dinosaur is a win in my household. Although this is a sponsored post I am a genuine fan of PLAYMOBIL as I talked about above. They are our go-to gifts to give to people! Wal-Mart recently started selling PLAYMOBIL and we couldn’t be happier about it because they offer low prices and the convenience of being able to find them locally.

Are you already PLAYMOBIL fans? Leave a comment below. Happy playing, friends!

READ MORE:
Check out this post on 7 ways to boost your child’s self confidence!

Disclosure: This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #PlayWithPlaymobil #CollectiveBias