My kids are just like your kids. They love to play electronics. But they also have amazing imaginations and love to play in their own pretend world. We have always tried to encourage imagination by giving them limits on their electronics time. When we unplug them from Xbox, DS and computer, they can find amazing story lines to play and mythical lands to discover. As part of a campaign to encourage kids to use their imagination, I was given the opportunity to go shopping at Costume Express and purchase some kids dress up items to encourage imagination.

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Encourage Imagination

As toddlers, we would hear them interacting with Big Bird, Diego or the characters from Horseland. But now that they are a bit older, the pretend worlds they imagine are more complex. Sometimes we hear them building a crossover world between Narnia and Hogwarts; other times we hear my daughter racing her horses around the world trying to win the ultimate equestrian challenge. We’ve even seen Professor Snape battling with the Riddler or Batman. There is literally no limits to the storylines when kids are given free reign and encouraged to imagine.

The Ever Changing Costume Box

We have had a costume box in the kids closet for 10 years. The costumes have changed as the kids grow, but the basics are the same. We keep every Halloween costume that still fits them. If the costume comes with boots or a belt and they outgrow the costume, then we usually keep the accessories so they can piece together bits and pieces to create something brand new.

This past week, we went to Costume Express and went shopping. Some parents think they need to buy full costumes for their kids to get them to play and use their imagination. But we know that sometimes kids just need new accessories to spark fun!

I headed straight to the Accessories page. Somebody at Costume Express understands the importance of the side items. It was easy to find the wands, broomstick and batarangs that my kid were looking for. They even had the popular themes sorted by title.!

The Harry Potter accessories offered a Firebolt Broomstick as well as several different wands. A few things off this page and my kids would be ready to move to Hogwarts.

Once we finished shopping, the kids had the hard part. They had to wait! But it only took about a a week to get a box delivered with the Harry Potter wands, Firebolt Broomstick, Batarangs and Riddler Cane! My kids were ready to dive in!

They pulled out their costume box and started creating their characters. I love seeing the mix of costumes.

When we unplug electronics, kids have a chance to really stretch their imagination. Costume Express definitely has the costume choices to keep my kids busy stretching their imagination.

Do your kids enjoy dressing up with costumes? What’s their favorite character? I’d love to hear how you encourage imagination with your kids!