Selecting a Theme | Magic Gardens

Making the Magic: Selecting a Theme

What should we make? PS: This is our favorite question

What are the coolest movies you have seen?
What shows do you like to watch? Why those?
What are your favorite toys/pastimes?
What do like do on the weekends?
What are your favorite books?
What kinds food would be fun to grow?
What do you like better things that are scary or things that are funny?
What makes something funny or scary?
What is cooler: unicorns, dinosaurs, butterflies or insert something you love here

Look through this site/book together. It might be the overall theme you think rocks, or a cool stick that “makes” the garden, or house set up that you think is dope. The book really gets the creative juices flowing. Mix the parts of any of the gardens together to create the coolest most original garden on your block.

Create With Toys You Have

Dig through toys in the toy box, under the bed, or in the garage sale pile – see what small, ideally plastic toys are ready to move into their “second life” in the garden. It can be a whole basket of dolls or action figures and then come alive in your city, castle or your concert Magic Garden.

TIP: Use Open-ended Questions

This lets kids have multiple answers and you can follow-up with secondary questions to get more insight: Why do you like that one? What character is your favorite? Why is that your favorite character? Questions with one simple answer (like “yes” or “no”) limits the quality of a child’s answer.

Where To Shop

CREATE WITH SOMETHING NEW, USED OR JUST DIFFERENT!
Go shopping together. Have a fun morning of shopping and an afternoon or gardening. Some suggested places to shop for inspiration are listed here.

Amazon

The King! They have everything. Each Magic Garden has a store at the bottom with ideas that can help you find anything for the garden that you do not have at home.

Target/Walmart

All of your favorite toys are at Target or Walmart and seeing them in person let’s you get imagining your garden immediately. It also lets you see the size of the toys right away so you KNOW if they fit in your Magic Garden size.

Garden/Home Store

All local garden and home stores have really cute stuff for your Magic Gardens. The have fairies, furniture and the plants as well as the tools you need for gardening.

Thrifting

Our personal favorite. Visit a thrift store and look at their toys, collectables, sports stuff and other areas. Maybe a basket becomes a house or a building. Thrift stores make shopping and “finding” both fun and affordable. Think out of the box while you shop too!