How to Create a Homemade Star Wars Gift for Your Child

Through my experience and training in becoming a preschool teacher, I learned the benefits of dramatic play for children. I have seen this first hand with my 2 sons. They love anything to do with beget believe or dramatic play. I often make dramatic play boxes for my home daycare and my enjoy children. My children love these boxes so much, that they ask me to perform recent ones based on what they are into at the time. Once you learn the concept of how to produce one, you can make several, stack them in a storage area in your home, label them and wait for a gargantuan opportunity to pull them out.

Another love of mine is giving my children homemade gifts and to parent in any creative draw I can. Changing and making toys is one of the easiest ways to get creative.These dramatic play boxes are the perfect Christmas gift. They can be as cheap or as expensive as you stare fit. They can be as small as a gift box or as large as an appliance box. Below are the advantages of making a dramatic play box for your child instead of giving them another store bought toy.

- No one else will have it. Your children’s friends will not come back from Christmas demolish and talk about their Star Wars dramatic play box. Your children will be the only one, that is until the word gets out.

- It is inexpensive. Since you choose the contents and they are not licensed Star Wars merchandise, they cost very little. You will find out very soon that the joy the Star Wars dramatic play box brings would be worth a lot of money but it costs only a few dollars.

- You will not disfavor of the contents. How many toys have your children gotten that you felt weren’t as appropriate as you had plan before purchasing them? Or there is one element that you do not like inside the box of a toy set? With the Star Wars dramatic play box, all the contents are chosen by you so they will coincide with your standards for your children and what they play with.

- It is custom made for your child. Finally, a toy that fits your child or children perfectly. You know the costumes fit, you know the the contents are his favorite color, you know that everything is bought with him or her in mind.

- It reinforces that homemade is better. If you have ever read any of my articles you know that I am a strong believer in teaching our children that homemade is better than store bought. What a great way to grunt this!

- It teaches creativity. My bet is that your child will only have his Star Wars dramatic play box a day or 2 before he asks if he can make a dramatic play box too. They learn creativity fast and they feel grand creating just like we do.

- It promotes good self esteem. Do you remember getting a gift as a child that made you feel special? I remember feeling so special when our neighbor embroidered my name on something. It felt good. This Star Wars box tells your child that you consider she/he is special enough to make something especially for him/her.

- Pretending is a great way to play. Our children learn so remarkable from pretending. This box takes that to a whole new level. They get to step into a character’s life in a realistic way. What is more fun than that for a crazed Star Wars fan?

So, now that you know why a dramatic play box is wonderful, let’s talk about making a Star Wars one. The first thing you must figure out is the container that will hold the contents. It does not have to be a box at all. Most of ours are Rubber maid type containers with lids that stay on. The clear ones are one good way to go about it since they get the child enraged before you even start it. A bright colored box is also an excellent choice especially if it is one of your child’s favorite colors. You can decorate a cardboard box too. I like the file type boxes that are easy to carry.

They are cheap and you have a clean slate to create on. You can intention things, or copy and paste Star Wars images from the Internet, use Star Wars stickers, or conceal the whole box in material. You could also buy one of the clear tubs with wheels and make a pod racer out of it to hold with your Star Wars contents. A Star Wars dramatic play box can be done so many ways. You do not have to follow my advice closely at all.

Exhaust your own ideas about what would blow your child’s mind and give them an excellent pretend play experience every time you pull out the box. I deem that this particular dramatic play box is a great one to plan a year ahead (maybe next Christmas) so you can scour garage sales and resale shops for the good contents. Here are my content ideas for a Star Wars dramatic play box:

- Any pre-made Star Wars costumes. I get these on clearance after Halloween usually 75 percent off. You can fill it with as many as possible.

- Work goggles. Star Wars characters wear them during pod racing and my son loves to pretend he is racing with the goggles on. They are .50-1.00 a pair, so buy 2 if you want.

- Any cape. If you can sew, this is a great thing to make in black or brown with cheap fabric. If you can’t (like me) buy capes anywhere you can find them.

- Brown robe to be a Jedi.

- Boots. You can buy ones that are too big to grow into impartial for play. Scour your thrift stores for these for very cheap prices. Several pair in brown and black would be awesome. The slick rain type peek the best.

- Swords. You can find Star Wars light sabers at yard sales. If you can’t salvage the real light sabers cheap enough, make one out of foam piping (or a pool noodle) and duct tape. Those are soft and the kids cherish them.

-Belts. Seize belts at a thrift store, especially the utility ones if you can come by them. Either kind can be ragged to tuck their light sabers into before battle.

-Brown clothes. Great ideas for clothes would be brown pants, vest and shirts to be Anakin or Luke Skywalker.

- All dusky outfits to be Darth Maul or Vader.

- Black gloves.

- Meteors. Make these out of rolled up foil. They can bat them around with swords pretending to save the planet from certain death.

It might seem like a short list but think about how creative you can be with it. He can pull it out and transform himself into his favorite character. You can make it as justify (lots of clothes, lots of belts, lots of shoes). Or very simple. A good thing to think of if your child already has Star Wars things thrown all over your house is to present a Star Wars dramatic play box empty for him for Christmas and then let him have it and acquire it ready for play. Then whenever you find a ample content to add, you can wrap it up and give it to them for their birthday or next holiday.

Remember to do up the box too to fabricate it more fun and inviting. Take lots of pictures and print them out and paste them on the box too. I have a feeling that this won’t be one of the MANY Christmas gifts that end up in the yard sale 5 months and 50 bucks later.