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With the colder months approaching, we are switching gears to indoor playtime. Stocking our activities closet with toys that develop my kids’ imagination and creativity is a must. PLAYMOBIL is the perfect toy for indoor playtime that encourages both imagination and creativity.

During one of our many Target runs, Evelyn pointed out that Target is carrying DreamWorks Spirit Riding Free by PLAYMOBIL sets. She immediately put them on her wish list! We own several of the PLAYMOBIL sets already, but she was most excited about making one of her favorite cartoons come alive through play.

We filled our cart with the DreamWorks Spirit Riding Free by PLAYMOBIL sets including Lucky & Spirit with Horse Stall, Riding Arena with Lucky & Javier, Abigail & Boomerang with Horse Stall, Pru with Horse and Foal, and the adorable Vaulting Solana. (Those little wings are our favorite detail!)

Hover over the image above to shop the DreamWorks Spirit Riding Free by PLAYMOBIL playsets!

PLAYMOBIL offers a variety of playset worlds that are both realistic and fantastical. (You can check out all the PLAYMOBIL playsets here.) The attention to detail is just amazing. Even the water for placing in the water pails looks so real with the blue pearlescent finish. Evie loves pretending to fill up the pails with water for the horses while she plays.

It’s amazing how her mind works and I love watching it develop through play. I grew up playing with PLAYMOBIL, so it brings me back to my own childhood while we play. We still own the sets that I had as a child. They lasted through seven kids! (Yes, I have six siblings!) And, now Evelyn is playing with the sets from my childhood as well as the new sets we have been adding to our collection. PLAYMOBIL lasts the test of time, which speaks to how high quality these playsets are.

By thinking through the different imaginative scenarios, Evelyn is developing both cognitive and social/emotional skills. Play is so important in the development of children. Knowing just how important play is, we only chose one after school activity this year, so that we leave plenty of room for unscheduled playtime. This may sound weird, but I like to leave time for Evie to “get bored” so that she uses her own imagination to entertain herself.

It’s important that she learns to make decisions for herself rather than just implementing the tasks and activities teachers, coaches, and parents plan for her.

I’ve noticed that Evelyn thrives when she’s dreaming up all the possibilities and making her playsets come alive in her world of make-believe. I love watching her play and listening to what each of the characters are saying or doing.

It’s so cute seeing her relate her own Dreamworks Spirit Riding Free scenarios to what she has learned through watching the cartoon. For instance, she was playing out a scene where the Lucky character takes Spirit out of his horse stall for a ride. I was playing her with and I was about to hand her a saddle. She stopped me and told me that Spirit likes to ride free and doesn’t like wearing a saddle, therefore, Lucky rides Spirit bear-back. She followed up by saddling Boomerrang because “he’s trained to wear a saddle”. We then rode through the “hills and mountains” together (a.k.a. the dressers, bed, and chair in her bedroom.)

I love that PLAYMOBIL allows Evelyn to expand the stories told by the DreamWorks Spirit Riding Free cartoon into her own scenarios for endless possibilities. PLAYMOBIL playsets are such a great way to encourage imaginative and creative play indoors. I think we’ll be set to handle the colder months coming up thanks to our new Dreamworks Spirit Riding Free by PLAYMOBIL playsets.