Archive for the ‘Pretend Play’ Category

I don’t plan out my posts much more than a scrap paper or notebook page of brainstorms. This post was not planned at all. My son was under the weather and wouldn’t eat. I knew he needed to eat lunch and when I asked ” If you could have anything what would you eat?” his answer was “A Happy Meal” . I was not taking him to McDonald’s every time he is sick! . So instead we made one at home. Huge , huge success !  He was sick and not at all into doing anything but this would be a fun parent and child activity. I am sure this is a healthier option ( not by much… but it is organic) more importantly it’s a treat at home!

1. Gather your ingredients and materials. You will need a paper bag, some markers, foil, containers, straw..whatever you need to package your food. Don’t forget a toy or prize as well! We played restaurant as well so I grabbed some money and a tray to complete the pretend play.
2. Start by decorating the bag – I wish my son was feeling well enough to do it but instead he told me to make one with fish.
3. Make your food! We made apple slices, chicken nuggets, ranch dip , and milk.
4. Pack your meal up and don’t forget the prize,  I popped some Olympic stickers in for him.
5. Take their order and their money!
6. Dig in!
7. He cleaned his plate and loved the stickers.

Books

Dinner at the Panda Palace by Stephanie Calmenson is a great book. I grabbed it only because of the title but found a gem. My son and I both loved it and had a blast reading it. The story is about a restaurant and the people , or rather animals that come into the restaurant in ever enlarging groups. The text is rhyming and well written. My son loved counting each group that came in figuring out after a few that each group was one animal larger. It was a great opportunity to practice one to one correspondence as he counted one each page.  There was also a great message about there always being room for one more when all the chairs were taken and a mouse came knocking wondering if he could eat too!

How Do Dinosaurs Eat Their Food? by Jan Yolen is a book all about eating in the popular and well loved series of dinosaur books . My son loves these books, he likes that the dinosaurs always misbehave in such over the top ways before the reality of how they really behave, well mannered , listening to their parents and eating all thier food. What I like about this is that kids relate to the dinosaurs and I have never had one question why the parents are human. I like that children are encouraged to sit still and say please and thank you. What I don’t like is that the dinosaurs are encouraged to clean their plate, never drop anything and try everything put before them. I know some parents will love these rules but for our house it doesn’t work, we don’t encourage plate cleaning or force bites. The book still served a purpose, as my son said loudly ” I’m a boy I don’t have to eat everything, right?” and we had a good talk about eating.

We love cupcakes, but who wants 24 cupcakes when only 2 people in your house will be eating them( which means 22 for me and 2 for my son … not good). So instead of baking them we decided to play with them. This pretend play incorporates sensory, learning shapes, and color mixing too! Not to mention it was really fun!

1. Gather your materials. You will need some red and white playdough, some fun cupcake liners, cake picks ( is that what they are called?), a cutting board and heart cookie cutters.  You can also add sprinkles, fancy plates and muffin tins!
2. Start by mixing some of the red and while to make pink playdough. Normally I make my own playdough but I wanted this color mixing lesson as part of the play, so I bought white and red dough, it’s hard to make true white playdough at home. If you want to make your own here are my favorite recipes.
3. Let em at it! My son kneaded the dough ” I squish it until it’s yummy!”
4. We rolled it into balls and popped it in a liner.
5. Made hearts for the top – I did one to show him all the options while  and he ran with it.
6. Don’t forget a pick!
7. Keep playing- this cupcake cost me $38 dollars! Good thing the playdough , liners and pics together only cost $3.99!
8. There is no right or wrong way to play – just explore, have fun and remember to keep playdough far away from carpet, it’s such a pain to get out.

Book

Mr. Cookie Baker was an instant hit at our house. The book is about who else, Mr. Cookie Baker and it shows the reader how he makes cookies from scratch, ices them and sells them. It’s a great book to explain baking and bakeries. My son loves the part where Mr. Cookie Baker eats a cookie after a long hard day and then says goodnight. I like the illustrations, they are bold and detailed without being cluttered and can almost tell the story all by themselves. Be warned though reading this will almost definitely make you crave a cookie or two.

Pretend play activities that combine imaginative play with  crafts are our favorite things to do lately.  Also our supplies are made up of many recycled and reusable  materials. This can be done with boxes, wagons pretty much anything your child can sit in! When they are pretending go along with their suggestions and let them lead. It’s your turn to ask “Why?” and follow along.  Most of all have fun.

1. Gather your materials. We are using a laundry basket, some party streamers,  a wrapping paper tube, some painters tape, pipe cleaners, a paper grocery bag,  sticky back foam, markers and scissors.
2. Start by having your child decorate the mast of the sail ( aka the wrapping paper tube) with markers and foam.
3. While they are doing that , draw a sail on the inside of the grocery bag.
4. Fold and cut two layers ( so the inside is facing out ) of sail.
5. Decorate the sail with markers and foam.
6. Tape the sail to the mast. I am using painters tape because my son likes the blue. Any tape will work.
7. Decorate the boat. We weaved the party streamers in and out of the little holes on the sides of our basket. I didn’t want anything sticky in the basket since my laundry does sometimes get put in it.
8. Attach the mast. I am using pipe cleaners wrapped around the tube and tied to the basket. Like I said above I didn’t want sticky tape residue on my basket. If you are using a box no biggie but this worked for us. I covered the sharp edges with painters tape which also won’t leave a residue.
9. All Aboard! We played ferry boat, and the drink you see was part of our pretend play. I had to be the lady in the ferry cafeteria and make him a drink before he got back in his Honda and we docked.  Hey it got some banana into him too !

I know this isn’t going to be the most popular post we have ever posted, but my son is into music. He is also into music stands and every where we go he finds one. At restaurants the “Please wait to be seated” sign is one, at parks the little signs that tell you about the plants become ones and on the airplane his tray table became one too. So it shouldn’t have been such a shock when he said he wanted to make one for a project. Well I never say no to a challenge!

1. Gather your materials. You will need a wrapping paper roll , a shoe box , decorations ( we used stickers) , scissors and a lot of packing tape.
2. Start by having your wee one add stickers to the roll for decoration, you can also paint or color it too! Can you tell he just got up from a nap?
3. Cut the top off the shoe box. Keep both pieces.
4. Make a slit on either side of one end of the roll about 2-3 inches long.
5. Bend one side down to make a lip. Tape the top of the shoe box on . Use a lot of tape!
6. Cut 4 slits on the other end about the same length to make an X shape.
7. Have your helper hold the tube to the bottom of the  box. This picture took almost as long to take as the stand took to make.
8. Tape it down.
9. It’s done and leaning only a little to the right.

Books

Mole Music by David McPhail is a beautiful book about the power of music, trying hard and not giving up on your dreams.  The story is about a mole who sees a violin on TV one day and decides to get his own and play. He is terrible at first but sticks with it. His music becomes beautiful, and over the years he thinks only he can hear and enjoy it. In reality his music is nourishing a grand tree above the ground that serves roles in great things including as a mediator in a battle where both sides end up coming to a peaceful agreement instead of warfare. Now yes I think that one little mole’s music ending a war is a rather large statement but if you break it down, music and the arts are vital and do transform people’s lives the way they transformed Mole’s.  My favorite part is in one illustration Mole is playing anf in another tunnel you can see his old TV discarded and tipped over, I like that message.

Sunny by Robin Mitchell and Judith Steedman  is a great book about finding sounds all around and making music with anything and everything you find. Sunny hears music from the animals around town, the vehicles and of course his friends playing at the playground.  My son loved when they had a “Hootenanny” and everyone together makes music in their own way. This book reminded me of the broadway show “Stomp” from the 90s, and is a great lesson for kids about how accessible making music really is.

Moose Music by Sue Porter is a goofy book about how what might sound like a racket to you, may indeed be music to other ears. Moose finds a violin in the mid and picks it up, and plays it. The sound is not music to the animals and people in the forrest. They get angry, they threaten to chase him, and he doesn’t stick around. He doesn’t stop playing thoughm he plays with all his heart and finally someone appreciates it. A lady moose , as you may have guessed it they fall in love and live happily ever after. My son thought this book was hilarious . It’s a cute lesson about following your heart even in the face of adversity.

Pretend Play

Take two pills and call me in the morning.

The best part of having a blog is that I am the boss. Although only a few of you wrote into say these were your favorite posts , I am making them number 1 for a reason. For every craft and art project we do in my house we do 3 times as many pretend play activities, usually started and directed by my son but sometimes I am the one to make the props and get things started. Toddlers and preschoolers should be doing a lot of pretend play, and self directed exploration. I know in this day and age it’s hard not to feel like we need to keep up with the Jones who are sitting their kids down with flash cards and teaching them how to “read” at 10 months. Don’t do it, let them play it’s how they learn and if they need some help starting here are some super fun pretend play we did this year. Click on each picture to see the full post !

Check out all ourPretend play

Play Grocery Store!

Don't forget your list!

Play Airplane!

Turn your foyer into an airplane!

Play Coffee Shop !

Double soy latte please !

Play Mail Carrier

Rain or shine your mail will arrive on time!