100 Things To Do With a Playsilk

As pom pom(s) to dance & jump with

Our child has been using play silks and clips as an all purpose, go-to, portable toy and decoration for these past three years of on-the-move, out-of-the-luggage, temporary housing-style living (moved overseas). From cosy tent/blanket on the plane, to draping the rainbow silk across the ceiling above the bed to make everywhere “home”, to making doll hammocks play clipped or tied between chairs, to loving dolly swaddling projects (including matching by size and swaddling a doll for each size of upside-down Grimm wooden rainbow piece — so she can then rock them all to sleep), to making her own puppet show, or wooden figures show on top of different silks, or (now she’s older), to cover and reveal a puppet scenario on the floor to us, or to set up to set up with a friend on the ledge of a play stand which they have play clipped with playsilk curtains to reveal the show or conceal the puppeteers. Recently, they have put on an evening show where the play silks are a shadow screen for fingers or wooden figures dancing behind it while one child holds and directs the flashlight. Once they presented us with handmade tickets for their show: wrapped and delivered in play silks. Another time she used a silk to make herself “invisible” to the audience when the musical instruments she was playing wouldn’t fit with them behind the play stand while her friend worked the puppets. The play silkss have been surprisingly warm and practical as blankets for our child when napping or when playing at sleep over on a bed or inside a sofa den. Like so many here, we pull them out of the basket to decorate the birthday and nature table, and to wrap gifts for the birthday table. She goes through phases of wrapping different toys she has in order to “make it secret” and then transform it again into something new by revealing it “ta da”. Or wanting to use up all of the silks in a project of wrapping up all of her toys and then giving them to us (or to her friend) and we to her to “open” as a play gift. Everything is made anew by wrapping it in a playsilk. Practicing tying a bow and knots is now fun with a playsilk. Their newest discovery is that the play clips expand far (with rubber band adjustment) to attach play silks and play cloths to the round plastic tubing of a Quadro play climbing structure build kit (indoor with a slide right now). She and her friend asked us to tie play silks capes of particular colors (as fairy/fireman capes and wings) whereupon they ran up the slide to place the two blue silks over the red and orange silks they’d clipped to the upper story — the blue silks put out the fire — also when balled up and thrown at the red and orange silks. Postal delivery is another repeated game, where they have made both levels into a den by hanging play silks all around by making the play clips very wide (and rubber bands loose). They decided later on to attach a toddler caterpillar tunnel to the slide with play silks to cover each end (for the postal delivery) so had to make the rubber bands very tight again on the clips for it to work. Each friend in their respective silky den room busily cutting long strips of paper, drawing pictures with letters on them. This playtime was improvised indoor in winter when her friend had a long leg cast. Grownups would be summoned often to supply new materials (crayons, scissors, more silks, or blue tape, when they ran out of silks), for their post office play. They tied their “messages” with a “string” made from a rolled up play silk. They’d call out “post is here!” whereupon a “message” would come hurtling down the caterpillar tunnel on the slide and out the playsilk exit at the bottom and we would untie the silk for reuse at the “post office”. So many endless inventions every time from simple to elaborate, but our children always seem to pull the play silks and the play clips out of the baskets to create new play worlds for themselves.

My son pretends he is a fire breathing dragon with the red one. He roars and then throws it out in front of him. I love the level of play that comes with the silks, his imagination just goes wild.

Make tiny parachutes from the scrap bag silk – flying puppies landing gently!

My 6 year old and 3 year old tie their small stuffed animals arms to the corners- parachute! Daughter also likes to use as a tablecloth for her tea parties and the playscapes make great “smoke” to disappear under during magic tricks.

My daughters favourite use for her silks at the moment are as bandages and slings when she is playing doctors! Far softer and much more colourful than the real thing 😊

My daughter loves to wear them like a superpower cape and we have a „reading fort“ in her bedroom where we use them like a tent 😍

My kids love to drape their silks over their head. It gives them a new colorful perspective on the world.

We have been having playsilk baths nearly nightly – bubble baths, of course! Washing our hair with them is especially nice at bedtime. Also: they make awesome ropes for games of tug-of-war and to scrunch up into balls to practice catching (the floating aspect seems to help the littlest players catch it better). Lately silks have also been babies for me to hold, or stuffed into my daughter’s shirt awaiting delivery. I’ve found in a pinch they work great as belts, and that’s led to us using them as reins/harnesses – drape one around the ’horse’s’ belly (often me) and then the rider/driver holds the two ends and goes on a ride behind the horse.

Use a blue silk to make a castle moat 🏰

My 4 year old son uses 2 play silks tied around his chest with various knots as a harness for rescue missions. To the rescue!

Use them as scarves for bellydancing!