Dress
Up Box
Put a dress up box together with some
of your old dresses, jackets, blouses, old Halloween
costumes, etc. Don’t forget to throw in some fun
accessories as well, such as purses, hats, wigs,
scarves, gloves. etc.
If you can’t find much around the house, look around
at some yard sales and the Goodwill and Salvation
Army stores. You’ll be able to find some great dress
up clothes for your kids for next to nothing
You
may also get requests for some unusual accessories
like space helmets, crowns, etc. Be creative and
look around the house. A colander makes a cool helmet
and you can form a sparkling crown out of aluminum
foil.
Veterinarian
All you’ll need is any of the stuffed
animals your kids already have plus some bandages.
You can substitute an empty pen to serve as a thermometer
or syringe. A pair of headphones can quickly be
turned into a stethoscope by taping a plastic bottle
cap to the jack..
Grocery
Store
You can quickly put a grocery store together
on a low shelf or side table. All you’ll need is
a basket and several empty cereal and rice boxes.
Add a few canned goods and some dry beans, and you're
all set. You can also draw up your own money on
pieces of paper and cut some coins out of cardboard.
Ask your child to help you color them. Take turns
with your child being the shopper or the storekeeper.
Library
When your child gets bored of playing
store, turn the grocery store into a library. Make
up a library card for every family member and add
a small piece of paper into each of your child’s
books. If your child cannot read or write yet, draw
a symbol for each family member, or use a different
color. When someone checks out a book from the family
library, ask the child to record who took it and
when it is due back in. You can also ask your child
to sort the books either by topic or alphabetically..
Firefighter
Have your kids turn an empty cardboard
box into a fire truck. They can color it and draw
tires on with markers or cut out shapes from construction
paper. Paint an empty clean can (like a coffee can)
blue to use as an emergency light. You can have
them make a police car, ambulance or garbage truck.
You’ll soon have your children pretend play to be
a fire fighter, police officer, etc.
Let’s
Cook
All you’ll need are a few pots and pans, some wooden
spoons, and if you’d like, some dry rice or beans.
Your kids can also draw shapes of favorite foods
on construction paper and color them with crayons
or markers. After that, let the pretending begin.
Encourage your child to pretend cook in the kitchen
with you while you are fixing dinner. It will keep
him or her occupied, while you can still keep an
eye on him or her.
Puppets
One of the most versatile pretend play toys
are puppets. You can easily make them yourself.
Take a look at these finger puppets (http://www.kinderinfo.com/crafts/fingerpuppets.htm)
and handkerchief puppets (http://www.kinderinfo.com/crafts/handkerchief-puppet.htm).
There is also a huge array of puppets from people
to animals commercially available. Puppets will
allow your child to recreate situations of everyday
life and to explore different points of view. Watching
them when they play with their puppets will give
also give you a glimpse at how they see the world.
Do you really say, “Please don’t do that” that often?
Give
your child the means and a little bit of encouragement
to pretend play and they’ll run with it. Our children
are so observatory of their surroundings and also
have tons of imagination. You’ll enjoy watching them
and interacting with them as they explore their world
through pretend play.
Susanne
Myers is the founder of http://www.kinderinfo.com,
the one-stop online children's resource center.
Here you will find all kinds of answers to help
you with your family, including information on child
care options and locations, educational resources,
sports and recreation, home-based activities, party
and event planning, even quick and easy recipes.
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