Operation Playtime Day 7 of 12: Pretend play

All children love to be creative. Some of them we have to help them along. Many just can’t help themselves and are eager to dress up or act. There’s no reason to think certain pretend play ideas are just for girls or boys. This is their time to experiment and try out ideas and make sense of the world.

My boys love to dress up in costumes. We have two huge stacks of clothes. Yes we are the family that has a superhero who shops groceries with his mom.

Just like outdoor play and gross motor play, finding time to encourage or allocate time for pretend play isn’t always a priority.

Inspire your children to try some pretend play. As usual push those boundaries only if you’re children are willing and try something different. Or else carve out some pretend play time.

Ideas

Read a story and extend the end of it into their adventure.
Start a pretend story you’re making up complete with actions. Ask them to join in.
Get a favourite toy and use it to start a play scene
Provide a selection of unstructured items ( material, natural objects etc) Invite them to go play and see where it takes them.
Set up an unstructured toy area ( dolls, train set etc)
Join in and extend the play by asking questions” Where should we go” I’m hungry- what shall we eat? Shall we stop? etc

There are so many ways to start them off.

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See you tomorrow.