Home made play mat acts as a fun boredom breaker activity and children get to play with the results!

Making a play mat helps children to:

• Talk about and plan what they are going to do
• Use paper, lines and objects to make an imaginary play setting
• Extend their ideas for play
• Have fun creating a pretend world

Find a long piece of paper which will stretch across the floor or a table – a piece of lining paper off a roll works well. Decide with your child what your play mat could be for – toy cars, or animals or play people? Make some lines on the paper with a thick pen to make a street or a field or a house. Encourage your child to put marks on the mat too – these might be for tree or houses or furniture. Put the mat out where your child likes to play and help arrange the toys on it. You might add other pieces of card to act as extra features – a garage, a hospital, a shop… There will be lots to talk about. Sticking the paper onto card ill prolong its life. But it doesn’t matter if it doesn’t last long – it can be a different place every day.