One morning we traveled to cheer my brother in a road race. We brought a bucket of chalk to write encouraging messages on the road. As we waited for him to run by, my 3 year old did the traditional chalk drawings on the driveway. That kept him amused for awhile, but not long enough!
It then dawned on me that instead of just drawing with chalk, how about interact with it. So with my son’s help in directing my drawings, I created a road with train tracks, tunnels, a police station, school and fire house. I, of course, had to draw a Starbucks with its own one-way drive thru. I even created a forest. We had a lot of fun creating all the different features. Once we were done drawing, he started playing with his cars. Driving them around on the road. Stopping at the Home Depot parking lot or ordering a latte at the coffee shop.
So the next time you get out the bucket of chalk, think about what you can do with it. Maybe it is what we did above, or maybe create a large dollhouse! Whatever it is, think about how you can incorporate chalk into play vs. just playing with it!
