How To Make Your Own Dress Up Games

Creating fun dress up games sparks the imagination and is a great way to keep your children amused and content for hours. By using simple materials you can make playtime creative and fun; it's also a great way to recycle your old clothing, makeup and costumes.

Things You'll Need

• Index cards Markers Oversized bag or chest

Instructions

1. Collect clothing. Assemble your children's (and your) old Halloween costumes, bad bridesmaid dresses, and absolutely anything that can be worn. Costume jewelry from days gone by, stick on jewels and ribbons are also great additions. Raid the attic, the back of the closet and your jewelry box.

2. Wash your clothing to be sure it's clean and safe to wear. Depending on how young your children are and their habits, remove any loose buttons, or items that could pose a choking hazard or other safety concern.

3. Put your clothes into an over-sized bag, old suitcase or chest. You may consider allowing your kids to decorate the chest or bag.

4. Brainstorm ideas with your children and note down their favorite movies and characters. Think of what they might want to be when they grow up. Write each character on an index card and ask the children to draw pictures on the other side to match. Keep plenty of blank cards in order to add ideas later on.

5. Invite your kids to take turns choosing characters from the cards, or make stories by pulling different numbers of characters and inviting the children to act out plays. Think of different combinations together. Once you assemble your cast, invite your kids to rummage through the dress-up bag for costumes. You might want to keep your dress-up bag accessible with your children's toys.