Have you heard of Imagine Childhood? If not, let me grace you with their incredible resources!
Imagine Childhood is an incredible family-owned shop filled with so many playful and educational resources! I originally discovered them by winning a giveaway months ago on Instagram! Since then, I have completely fallen in love with what they have to offer and I am so excited to share a peek into their shop with you all!
Nature Play
This small shop is incredibly nature-based and super inspiring! If you want to include nature into your homeschool studies, but don’t know where to start, just hop over to their site and browse through their resources and materials. Imagine Childhood makes learning easy, hands-on, and most importantly: fun!
I received the book Play The Forest School Way by Jane Worroll & Peter Houghton and I’m thrilled to provide my children with more opportunities to incorporate creative play. This book also contains practical skills like rope tying and survival skills! You can start at a young age and continue making the activities a bit more challenging as your child grows. This is a must-have for anyone new to hands-on adventurous experiences.
Nature Education
One of my favorite items listed in their shop are these beautiful nature cards. I have 14 different cards filled with various classifications and species that we use weekly in our home education plan. These are perfect as an addition to any natural science curriculum and are in invaluable resource. They are small enough to take with you on a hike or tuck into your children’s nature journal!
These cards include:
Mushrooms
Butterflies
Insects
Flowers
Leaves
Mammals
Bats
Fish
Birds
Gemstones
and more!
Each includes vibrant images with labels printed on durable thick cardstock and are a go-to for us when the kids want to study a particular plant or animal!
Hands-On Learning
So like I said before, their site and shop encourages hands-on learning through quality items and resources. There is such a range of amazing toys and tools that I don’t even know where to begin! There are telescopes, DIY sun dials, bird whistles, chisel sets, wooden boats, tents, the options are endless!
Two of my particular favorites are their Gardener’s Press and their Wooden Magnifier. They have two presses, a smaller Flower Press and then the larger Gardener’s Press. I had always wanted to press my own flowers but didn’t even know where to begin! Their presses are so durable and of high quality. They include a little card with instructions and several sheets of blank white paper to get started! My kids have had so much fun trying this out, now we just need to get creative with how to display our pressed blossoms!
I love a good quality wooden item. Aside from being beautiful to look at and to hold, they’re long lasting (not disposable like so much of the world today). A wooden toy is something that will stay with us and maybe even get passed down years from now! We use our Wooden Magnifier constantly, literally every week, to investigate and explore. My kids love looking through books and picture encyclopedias with it and bring it outside to inspect our live oak trees each time we go on a walk. If you have a curious child that’s eager to observe the world around them, then this is the absolute perfect gift!
Nature, Nature, Nature….What Else Do They Have?
Ok, so I keep highlighting all of their amazing nature items because that’s one of my greatest passions. But I have another major passion: Reading. Imagine Childhood has so many valuable books available that are hard to find elsewhere! Pictured above is a small sampling that doesn’t even scratch the surface of what’s in stock. The Story Of Buildings contains the most incredibly detailed and beautiful illustrations of housing and structures around the world. There’s everything from Indigenous people’s Wigwams, to The Forbidden City in China, to the Taj Mahal. The book teaches you about castles during Medieval times as well as modern buildings in Europe. It’s such a gorgeous resource that we will use for so many different studies for years to come.
Poetry and theatre is important for me to introduce to my children, but it can be a little dark and inappropriate. I am so excited to dive into How To Teach Your Children Shakespeare by Ken Ludwig so I can learn how to relate heavy topics and themes to a young child’s mind while creating a fun and enriching environment.
Ok, I Gotta Check This Out!
If you’re thinking the words that are directly above this sentence you’re reading, then all I can say is, I KNOW, RIGHT?!?!
Go hop over to Imagine Childhood and browse ALL of their shop categories. They have resources for art (planetary wool-felting kits!!!), reading (books for kids AND adults), STEM (incredible science blocks and games), camping, and honestly more than I can even list.
You’ll quickly see why I am so enthusiastic about this lovely family-owned shop! I will continue to share their amazing resources with you and how we incorporate them into our natural play and studies! There’s still a few weeks before Christmas, so go check out what you can gift this holiday season! Leave a comment below if you have any questions!