When my siblings and I were growing up, the gifts that got the most attention were the ones that really helped us imagine and pretend we were doing something interesting or important.
In 1965, the year Mom and Dad divorced, there was very little money for Christmas. But because the toys we received that year were so thoughtful and invited us to use our imaginations, they helped our imaginations and creativity flourish. These toys ended up being loved and enjoyed for several years.
One of those toys was a general store that was about 4′ x 2′ x 5′. It was made of cardboard. And you can’t believe how many hours the three of us played with that thing.
We had a storefront complete with window, clock, and brick walls. There was a counter, shelves, some items to sell, and money for transactions. We were ready for business!
You’d almost think thousands of dollars went into this “store,” that the brick was real and the wooden shelves and counter were mahogany, if you saw how seriously we take our roles as customers and store workers.
Long after the tent crumpled up and disappeared, I thought about it and how much fun it was to play with.
Children love to pretend! They can’t wait to grow! Pretending allows them to get a little feel for what it’s like to be an adult. And while kids can pretend they’re not wearing anything at all, they really love being able to pretend with things that support the roles they’re pretending to have. That’s why toys are so popular!
But what some manufacturers forget is the terrain. And, for certain gifts, especially ones that are somehow related to a particular type of transportation, when you leave out the soil or terrain, you’re missing out on a great opportunity to help kids further explore an extra dimension of their imagination. . Think how important tracks are for toy trains and racing cars!
When some friends of ours invited us to their little boy’s 4th birthday which was going to be farm themed with real animals etc. I decided to find a small farm and tractor as a gift for him. I discovered the Playmobil brand and found his adorable portable farm and tractor.
I don’t remember exactly when I realized that I only had to make a garden or growing area for this gift. But, it was pretty fast. It’s almost like the girl from 1965 took control of me and said, “This will be nice. But it would be so much MORE fun if we could just have the tractor working in a field!” After all, without land to grow the food that will be eaten by the animals or sold to the community, how can the farm function?
So with that, I started planning. I had to work fast. The gift had to be created fast. The birthday party was the next day!
The dirt needed to be portable, just like the rest of the gift. So, it would have to be a mat with a center fold and handles. The tractor had to be able to fit correctly in the field so that she could till the land, weed and help with the harvest. And the more three-dimensional the garden, the better. So if the soil the vegetables grew on could be higher than the tracks the tractor ran over and if the vegetables looked like they were growing out of the soil, that would be great.
In fact, I already had a lot of the materials, foam board, glue, silk leaves/flowers, ribbon and thread, some ink, paint and brushes. I went to the local fabric store and bought some ribbons in simple brown and green patterns and some interesting ideas that looked like vegetables.
The garden rows, the tracks of the tractors, the access to the dirt road and the green areas were first drawn in pencil. And a fair amount of time was left between steps for the glues and paints to dry. The gift was easily completed in time for the party!
Although everything was measured beforehand, I felt that I had to confirm the proper functioning of the finished gift. Therefore, the tractor was carefully unpacked to ensure it would work in the field. yahoo! It worked great. The girl in me was so excited for the birthday boy. She would love to be a farmhand if the new farmer needed her help.