Children have always used found items to create toys and props for imaginative play. Around the world they have used their mother’s scarves and pieces of cloth to make toys. Picking up a piece of cloth, a piece of wood, or a common housebound object allows children to use their imagination in a different way than giving them already formed objects. Putting their creative forces to work is important for creative thinking in adulthood.

A basket of colored playsilks is one of the best additions to a child’s playroom. It is amazing to see what children create with them.

Some children make costumes like capes, skirts, pants, hats, veils, animal tails and more. The next day the same silks become green grass for their toy animals to live on, blue water to sail the boats, or a rainbow can appear in the sky above them. Many children wrap their dolls in them or tie them on as a sling to carry a favorite animal or doll around in. They can be used to build forts with the sofa cushions, for a puppet show curtain, and for magic tricks.