With this year’s World Book Day less than a few weeks away, it’s time to get your costumes ready! A recent survey by parenting website Mumsnet found that 73% of parents get stressed out by World Book Day preparations, but an even higher percentage concede that it’s a great way to celebrate reading. For parents and educators looking to inspire a love of literature in their children, these opportunities can be a lot of fun, so long as you get organized. One approach is to apply “capsule wardrobe” principles to your dressing-up box; a few key pieces can be styled different ways so you never need to dread costume planning again.
For the love of literacy
In case you need a little extra motivation to dust down your sewing box, it’s worth remembering why World Book Day is a useful opportunity to celebrate books. In a recent survey, teachers reported that 30% of their students were reading below grade level. All too often, books lose out to screen time when it comes to kids and teens’ attention spans. Any excuse to celebrate reading can open kids’ eyes to new authors, remind them of their favorites, and inspire a little creativity of their own, if you get them to help with the costume prep.
Box of basics
Every home needs a dressing up box. For one thing, it encourages imaginative play, but it also means costumes can be reused over the years. Did you know that Americans spent $3.2 billion on Halloween costumes last year? Much of that can be recycled. Here are the basics for a great capsule costume wardrobe: black cape, pointy hat, wand, old white shirt, old trousers which you can make ragged-looking, old school tie, old bridesmaid dress / ballet skirt. With these inexpensive items, you can dress up as your favorite characters including Harry Potter, Gandalf, Oliver Twist, Charlie Bucket, Angelina Ballerina or Winnie the Witch without spending a fortune.
Getting creative
If the basics are covered, you can get a little more ambitious. A simple set of wooden accessories – sword, shield, bow and arrow – plus basic clothes from your children’s wardrobe can provide Legolas, Katniss Everdeen or Percy Jackson. This might help to persuade reluctant older children, a third of whom haven’t read for pleasure in a long while, according to research, to participate. Animal onesies are always useful for characters from Rudyard Kipling to Roald Dahl, as are face paints.
Preparing costumes for World Book Day and other dressing up occasions can be costly both in terms of time and money, but by applying a capsule wardrobe approach, you can soon build up a useful stock of handy pieces. Not only will this make your life easier, but it’s also more sustainable; at present, more than 15 million tons of used textile waste is generated each year in the US alone. By reusing costume elements you’re teaching your kids how to be resourceful and creative whilst celebrating literature. Now that’s a noble quest by anyone’s standards.
Credits:
Article submitted by: Karoline Gore
Photos by rawpixel.com,Quaz Amir from Pexels
