Monday, July 7, 2008

Theme of the Week Challenge

There were several positive responses to the Bright Idea I gave on June 27 about Pretend Play. I thought making it a week long theme would give us all the opportunity to share the ideas and expereince we have in this area.

Most of us realize that planning out imaginary play is difficult, and even impossible at times. The truth is, the best pretend play is often spontaneous. I have found the only way to prepare for it is to have lots of ideas at my fingertips. The more examples I read about online, or see at friend's houses, the easier it is to immediately encourage my child's imagination when he starts showing interest in something.

I know you moms have all done some pretend play, so please take TWO MINUTES and share ideas. (Don't tell me you don't have 2 minutes, or you shouldn't be surfing the internet.) Here are some questions to get you started. Which scenarios does your child love to act out? What details have you added to extend your child's pretend play. What do you keep in your costume box? Have you made some simple homemade props? What books did you try acting out? What toys are great for encouraging imaginary play?

And while I'd much rather read what you have done, here are some other ideas I came across while searching the web.
Brain Play (pages 1-2 list benefits of pretend play, 3 gives suggestions for you to follow, and page 4 has specific ideas of props/scenarios)
Pretend Play in the Elementary Years (5 ideas for scenarios)
Still Stuck on Pretend Play (ideas for scenarios and props)

5 comments:

Brooke said...

My kids love to make "huts" out of anything they can get their hands on (couch cushions, chairs, blankets, etc.). Then they pretend all sorts of things, like camping, baby going to sleep, horse, or kitty corraled, pretty much anything you can think of. This is such a great activity to stimulate pretend play, they could go at it for hours! Sand or dirt is also awesome for pretend play!

The Ravsten's said...

My daughter loves playing with her animals. Afterwards, she is a dog, cat or horse almost any day, all day. It's how I get her to eat sometimes! She's also taught our 17 mo old son to walk on all fours to be fed treats! A different note, my daughter has her first dentist appointment the end of the month. We bought a Dora book, her favorite, about the dentist and now we practice on each other's teeth. There is a lot of pretend play going on around this house. Almost always instigated by a 3 yo girl!

Erin said...

My kids are terrified to jump into the swimming pool. So every day for the last week we have pulled the mattress off of one of their beds, climbed up onto the other's bed, and jumped into the "pool." Over and over. We have also gotten out the swim floaties, life jackets, and tub toys and pretended that we are at the pool...we're going to the real swimming pool today so hopefully the pretend play has paid off!

Anonymous said...

Welcome to the SITStahood!!

Desta said...

I know this is a week late, but I just had to let you know that because of pretend play, the Z-girl is sleeping in her "big girl bed" ALL NIGHT LONG. Before her first night in it I made a huge production of setting it up, playing with the blankets, and then we spent at least 45 minutes playing "night time" and talking about when it was dark at night we closed our eyes and went to sleep. Then when it is day time we get up. So far, she's been perfect - 3 nights in a row without a peep after tucking her in! Whoo!