6 cool ways to stay creative during Spring Break

6: City Explorer

Be a tourist in your own town! Pull out a city map, or map of your local transit system, and have your child choose a stop or area that they’ve never been before. Then, plan out your great adventure like you’re an traveller visiting a previously unexplored land!

Pack up an explorer’s pack with:

• snacks and drinks
• a disposable camera
• a pocket notebook and crayons
• your trusty map
• Walk & Play finger puppets

Plan to spend the whole day exploring your chosen location! Try new snack shops, toy stores, museums or art galleries. Spend some time in a park, and have your child draw what they see around them. If you brought your finger puppets, Jinja and Harvey can explore alongside you! On the transit ride home (if eyelids aren’t too droopy) you can draw a short story of your day, remembering to capture all the highlights.

This mini vacation is a great way to discover something new without splurging on a plane ticket. Who knows … you might even want to go back!

5: Create your own interactive “toy story”

We love this one for filling gaps in your slower days (and for guaranteed hilarity). Sit on the floor with a selection of toys, household objects, craft supplies, costumes – whatever you can find laying around! Start by telling a simple story of your choosing. At any point in your hilarious tale, your child can decide to jump in and hand you an object from the pile. You’ll now need to change your story to incorporate that object on the fly! Keep going like this until you run out of ideas (or your kid wants a turn at being the storyteller).

4: DIY toilet roll cars to keep the good times rolling

The Sago Mini pals have got places to go – and only you can help them get there! We love making these little toilet paper roll cars – it’s likely you’ve already got all the materials at home, making them eco-friendly and easy for busy parents.

Here’s a quick how-to (but feel free to interpret as you wish!)

• Raid the recycling bin for a few toilet paper rolls … or paper towel rolls, if you’re making a city bus!

• Paint, decorate and decoupage as you’d like. (We’re partial to flames and bold racing stripes. Guy Fieri would be proud.)

• Cut wheels from cardboard or construction paper, and attach them with a push pin so they can spin freely.

• Take a rough measurement of the base of your chosen figurine. Cut out a small window of cardboard from the top for the seat, and you’re off!

3: Send your Sago Mini friends on a literary adventure

Using the tips in this post, create, produce and perform your very own story or play using your Sago Mini figurines and playsets as a backdrop.

Here are a few spring-related prompts to get the wheels turning:

• It’s Rosie’s birthday party (of course this fun, feisty friend is an Aries!) and the gang is trying to organize a big surprise without spilling the beans. Will they succeed?

• The gang is headed out on a road trip – but whoops, they just drove over a thumbtack and got a flat tire! Good thing they’re just out front of Jack’s Diner. Will he help them get back on the road in time?

• The Sago Mini pals are back in medieval times, and about to celebrate the spring solstice. But just as they’re setting up for their big banquet, a giant octopus named Dennis comes storming through the palace gates, with bathtub in tow. Is he a friend who’s lost his way or a mischievous foe looking for trouble?

2: Take a pretend play vacation with portable playsets

All cooped up with nowhere to go? With the help of your playset of choice, book a one-way ticket to the best playcation ever. Use Harvey’s Spaceship to hit up a resort on the north side of the Moon, fix up Jinja’s House into an Airbnb, or turn Robin’s Farm into a work/stay farm co-op – but not before stopping at Jack’s Diner for a roadside pit stop on the way!

Other toys like building blocks, toy cars and household craft supplies like toilet paper rolls and tissue boxes add tons of play value to the playsets, giving kids the creative control to go wherever their imagination takes ‘em!

1: Make an inside day a-ok with Sago Mini World

Weather still looking more like a holiday break than a spring one? Sago Mini World, with its unlimited creative play value, is a perfect antidote to some seriously sad weather. This is also a perfect opportunity for some co-play – instead of letting your kid explore on their own, observe them and see which games they gravitate towards.

This is a great test to see what’s getting them excited these days – be it tools, zoo animals or farting planets. Ask them questions as they play: why did they make that decision? Why did they giggle so hard at this? What are the characters thinking right now? Before you know it, a springtime snow day becomes a perfect opportunity for some parent-child bonding, and an opportunity to develop their creative thinking skills!

Download our free printables for more spring break fun!