Why Imaginative Play Is So Important For Your Kids

Photo: Unicorn Tea-Party Anyone?

Kids have the biggest imaginations. An unused cardboard box can become a race car, spaceship or even a jungle raft. And giving kids the space and tools to dream up new ideas has big benefits for their growth and development, too.

From fostering crucial motor skills to learning how to communicate with others, imaginative play is the secret ingredient to happy, healthy kids. It’s also a stack of fun for kids of all ages as well.

So, let’s dive into the benefits of imaginative play for your little ones and show you how to use The Possum Play Couch to bring infinite, imaginative ideas to life.

The importance of imaginative play for kids of all ages

Playing dress ups and setting up forts isn’t just a recipe for hours of entertainment for the kids. Offering opportunities for unstructured, make-believe play helps foster emotional, social and physical development, too.

 

Here are just some of the reasons to encourage imaginative play with your kids:

 

  • Fosters creativity: dreaming up new ideas and transforming ordinary objects into spaces for play, adventure and fun is key to building budding creative minds. For example, acting out imaginary scenes builds storytelling skills and enhances creative thinking among little minds.
     
  • Aids physical development: learning how to jump, grasp, and handle new objects through imaginative plays helps to build hand-eye coordination and refine a range of important gross motor skills. Plus, research shows unstructured play builds strength, muscle control and coordination for growing kids.

 

  • Develops language and social skills: impersonating their favourite movie characters and acting out imaginary scenes helps kids master new words, communicate appropriately and share their big ideas with other kids.

  • Boosts problem solving skills: from finding the right materials for their castle to creating the perfect princess costume, kids develop essential problem-solving skills through imaginative play (that they’ll go on to use for the rest of their lives).

  • Teaches positive behaviour: learning how to read social cues and developing a sense of empathy for others helps little ones to express themselves and learn how to compromise and negotiate with their friends, too.

 

Clearly, imaginative play has a stack of big benefits for kids and sets them up with crucial skills they’ll continue to use and develop as they grow.

Offering opportunities for unstructured, make-believe play helps foster emotional, social and physical development

Photo: All aboard the rocket ship, we're about to take off!

How to spark moments of imaginative play

At every age, there are different ways to create and inspire imaginative play for kids. So, let’s look at the different stages of play and how to get the most out of unstructured play along the way.

Imaginative play for babies

In the first months after birth, play is a powerful way to foster developmental growth. It can start as simply as responding to baby’s smiles with positive reinforcement and showing them bright, interesting objects that they can touch and experience for the first time. The familar game of peek-a-boo helps foster imagination for your little ones as they start to imagine and anticipate what's hiding doing behind your hands.


Even placing your bub in different positions on a soft yet supportive couch allows them to see and experience the world from different angles and gets them familiar with new sensations.As your baby gets more mobile and starts to crawl and move about, you can configure cushions, blankets and other objects into obstacle courses that they can problem solve how to navigate around. They love imagining who or what might be hiding just around the corner or just out of view, so make sure to place toys and favourite objects behind cushions and just out of reach.

 

Imaginative play for toddlers

With more motor skills under their belt, toddlers can begin to explore the world around them through unstructured play.

Give your kids access to toys that are 'open-ended', meaning that they can be played with in multiple and varied says, depending on your child's input , and help them to engage in make-believe play (whether that’s simply pretending to drink out of an empty cup or baking an imaginary cake for their pop-up cake stall). Building blocks, magnetic tiles, or a play couch, are great examples of open ended toys that provide the perfect canvas to spur on little imaginations.

Regularly reading together in a cosy reading nook will also help your little ones discover stories and characters to inspire their imaginative play.

Imaginative play for young children

Making time for imaginative play is key at this stage as well as engaging with your kids and asking them questions about stories, plays or books you’ve read together.

Encourage your kids to sing, dance and dress up as their favourite characters to act out imaginary scenes or roles. Plus, get their friends involved and give them the chance to dream up new scenarios together.


To help encourage this kind of play, give them a safe environment to learn new skills and movements such as building, reaching and rolling indoors on a durable supportive surface. This kind of play is also a fantastic way to tire out kids with seemingly endless energy!

The thing we love most about The Possum's modular design? The options are only limited to your kid’s imagination.

How The Possum Play Couch inspires open-ended imaginative play

As kids, we always wished we had the tools to build the forts, castles and racing cars of our dreams. So, we created The Possum Play Couch to offer endless possibilities and configurations for hours of imaginative play.

Instead of destroying the family couch or tearing into the linen cupboard, The Possum’s modular kids play couch gives little minds the materials to bring their make-believe scenarios to life.

Each Possum Play Couch comes with six light-weight yet durable pieces (each with a machine washable cover) that can be lifted overhead and placed into whatever designs your kids dream up. And instead of spending hours in front of the screen, your kids will get lost in their wild ideas and imaginative adventures.

Need some inspiration? Here are just a few of our favourite Possum builds to spark imaginative play:

  • Create a cosy Aladdin’s Cave
  • Build a bulldozer
  • Recreate the Eiffel Tower
  • Tear it up in a Formula 1 Racing Car
  • Set up a farmer’s market stall
  • Design a hidden fort or reading nook

 

The thing we love most about The Possum's modular design? The options are only limited to your kid’s imagination. And as they grow up, The Possum grows with them to become a comfortable movie night seat or spot to lounge while flicking through their favourite read.

Photo: Ready to cruise through the city streets in my blue convertible

How we designed The Possum to bring out the best in play

Speaking of endless options, we poured our heart and soul into creating the colour palette of our dreams when designing The Possum Play Couch. With seven family and kid-friendly colours to choose from, we wanted to ensure each modern shade would shine in living rooms across Australia.

In fact, we worked with our customers to tweak and test each colour to find the ultimate shades to inspire imaginative play.

From our deep, dark Forest green to our warm, nutty Peanut shade, each colour is handpicked to provide the perfect canvas for endless everyday play.

When it comes to giving your kids the best start in life, imaginative play needs to be at the top of your agenda. And if you’re searching for the most versatile toy since the cardboard box, The Possum Play Couch is your answer. Whether your Possum transforms into a car, shopfront or rocket ship, The Possum gives your kids infinite hours of open-ended, brain-expanding, indoor energy-burning fun.

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Based on 1462 reviews
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Such Fun

After a long search for soft play items for my 9 year old Granddaughter I came across your website. It ticked every box. Bigger than the others, fantastic quality, able to add to & so many different colours. My GD absolutely loves it. She has made so many different forts, hideaways, chairs, sofas & it's big enough (& strong enough) to have as a bed. We even added the armrests to the order too. Very quick delivery. Extremely happy Granddaughter 😊

Great Christmas present

Kids love it. It’s used daily and a happy bonus is it’s also freed up the grown up sofas! And has stopped my 3 year old jumping on/off the grown up sofas too. Win win win! Bought the waterproof covers - best decision. Thinking of buying a spare/second set of covers, maybe in a different colour but love the babycino/beige as it can go in any room. My 6 year old even asks to take the couch up to bed to sleep on he loves it that much.

Amazing

I’m always sceptical about any kids items and their longevity but the sofa is really a great investment. Since we bought it it’s being used almost every day. My kids come back to it over and over again coming up with new uses. I had it over 2 months and it still looks great.

Great for obstacle course play

Both my 3 year old and my 1 year old love this for making little obstacle courses. My 1 year old loves climbing over it and as long as supervised it's safe and squishy fun.

J
Wedge Set
James K.

Wedge Set

Amazing kids couch

Amazing kids couch. Perfect for the rough and tumble play that my 2 year old twins love. Will keep them entertained for hours during the long English winter. Love it!

Fantastic

We have had the play couch for a little over a year and have recently purchased the crash mat, it keeps the kids (4year old and 18month old) entertained for hours and hours at a time. A fantastic addition!

Worth the investment

We absolutely love our play couch (adults included!). We weren't sure whether to take the plunge but we're so glad we did. It's loved by our 4 year old and our 1 year old and is used every day in various ways. I was hoping it would help us to reduce screen time and give our son a physical outlet for his energy, and so far it's doing just that!

Hours of fun!

This was a gift for my youngest grandchildren and is the perfect gift! Already they have had hours of fun! A real hit.

T
Wedge Set
Teresa K.
Durable and fun stackable couch

Our 1 1/2 year old grandson loves his stackable couch. So many ways to have fun and be safe at the same time. Great for building levels to climb on or just a fun place to read a book. Highly recommended for toddlers!!

C
Moon Arch Set
Cassia M.
A family favourite

We love it so much! It’s exactly what we expected it to be and more! Thank you so much Possum team!

Fun

The best gift I could have given our grandchildren.

excellent quality -the fastest delivery

than you for your fast delivery. the product is excellent , the couch is my daughter's favorite corner in her room.

B
Crash Pad
Brooke M.
High quality

My two boys love this crash pad! It’s really well made and quite big!

The best addition to our living room

Our girls love this. The 3 yo is practising gymnastics, making a stage or a house every day and our youngest is just learning to cruise and she is drawn to it. A bonus it also looks lovely.

Best christmas present ever!

I ordered the sage green possum play couch, and the sage green arms as a gift for my 4+2 year old for christmas. I wasn’t sure what to expect with the kids reactions, but there hasn’t been a day since christmas they haven’t used it! We’ve made a racecar, dens, used it as a bed for a sleepover and so much more. So pleased I decided to buy one!

Best thing I have bought for my child

My 20 month old is obsessed. It is so good for his balance, movement, motor skills, creativity and getting some quality exercise. It brings him so much daily joy and we love that it is an investment that will be enjoyed for years to come in many different ways.

A complete success.

A wonderful product loved by my 3 year old daughter. Very good quality. Very responsive customer service.

Great investment for our little girl

We love our possum! We really deliberated on spending the money as seemed such a lot, but now we have it we have no regrets. Already getting so much use out of it for our 2.5 year old, and the quality is great so we are reassured we will be using it for many years to come! A spare bed, forts, climbing, padding for the floor now we have taken the cot side off - already had so many different uses and we have only had it up since Christmas day!

Great toy for enthusiastic boys!

My four-year-old and six-year-old have already had great enjoyment from this since Christmas! It has been everything from a boat to a fort.

Great fun

Loved by my boys! Making forts and indoor soft play!

Excellent Christmas Present

We got this for our kids for Christmas because we have a bit of a strange shaped room and wanted them to be able to rearrange their furniture easily, the pieces were all high quality and the foam is so comfortable that me and my wife crash on them when the kids are in bed - the triangle pillows are especially comfy to lean over. Was VERY confused when the pack arrived so compressed but they expand a treat. Would definitely recommend this product highly!

The Possum Play Couch (with Circle Set)

One of the best gifts this Christmas

My 5 and 7 year old love their new Possum Play Couch. I was concerned that my 7 year old might not be that excited about it but I was wrong! They have had great fun so far making armchairs and dens etc. and even took the base cushions on a sleepover! Really comfy & soft; the quality is beautiful and the material cleans very easily.

Excellent product

Our 4 year old loves this. It is such a versatile toy, and means we get our sofa cushions back! Seems very easy to clean.