Easy DIY Story Stones for Fun Creative Play

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Encourage creative play with these simple DIY story stones from Lisa! Make them with an insect theme for preschoolers that love creepy crawlies.

We love story stones in our house! They are one of my favorite open-ended toys.

Story stones use your child’s imagination and creativity while sneaking in language development and thinking skills.

Story stones are primarily used as prompts to create stories, but you can get creative with them and use them for different things.

When you DIY your own set, use your imagination! You can follow a theme, color scheme or even draw your kid’s favorite cartoon characters.

DIY Story Stones for a Creative Playtime Activity

I wanted to create a new set of story stones for my boys for spring.  They are super interested in bugs and insects right now, so I decided to create an insect-themed set for them!

Materials for DIY Story Stones:

• Smooth, light rocks that are big enough for you to draw or paint on
• Markers, Paints, Stickers
• Acrylic Sealer or Modge Podge (Optional)

I used permanent markers to freehand draw the bugs on our rocks.

We talked about what kinds of bugs we should draw on our insect story stones. He loved picking and choosing what kind of bugs we should put on our rocks.

I drew the outline for most of the bugs. Then, my youngest colored them in.

Later, he decided to design a few of his own insect story stones.

I also added a few natural landmarks like grass, trees, sun, and clouds. These could be scenery for his stories or creative play.

When you’re done drawing on your stones, you could make them more durable with a coat of sealer or Mod Podge. Plus, your story stones will be so easy to clean with a quick wipe down.

Creative Play with Your DIY Story Stones

The best part about story stones is that they can easily be played with inside or outdoors!

My son had fun placing them around the yard and creating stories about his bugs.

While we were playing outside, we even found a real ladybug!

I love how versatile these stones are. They can be taken to the park, to the beach, and to picnics to play with.

There are so many ways to use your story stones to enhance your child’s play in a natural outdoor setting!

When we took our story stones inside, I created a tray of dirt for my youngest to use them in for an added sensory benefit.

He loved placing the rocks in the dirt and even created a little ant hill for the ant to rest in.

As his play evolved, so did his stories. I love listening to his imagination come alive!

Creative ways to use story stones in your everyday play:

• have your child create sidewalk chalk scenes with them in the summer.
• add them to a sensory bin (rice, dirty, beans, pasta and even water!).
• use them at night to create an extra special bedtime story experience with your child.
• create a natural memory matching game with them.
• keep them in the vehicle for those extra long road trips.

For easy access, store your DIY insect story stones in a drawstring bag or even a clear plastic container so they can be used on the go!

Have you ever made story stones? What creative technique did you use?

from Hands On As We Grow https://ift.tt/2lj7YWe