Sunday, April 19, 2015

Learning While Pretending


Pretend play is important for building many different developmental skills such as language, thinking, social and emotional skills.  The best part is they are learning while pretending and imagining!

Recently, while cleaning out one of our kitchen cabinets I had a bunch of food boxes and instead of tossing them I used them for a pretend play grocery store.


Here's what I used to set up our grocery store pretend play:

Paper
Pen
Play money
Toy cash register
Empty food boxes/containers
Toy carriage
Plastic grocery bags
Toy purse/wallet

I began by setting up the empty food boxes and containers around the house.  I wrote a grocery list but because my 4 year old can not read yet, I told her what the word on the list was.  As she 'shopped' she had to match the word on the list to the word/letters on the item.  Some of the items she simply remembered from our own 'real' trips to the grocery store.



As she shopped she crossed off items from her list just like Mommy does!  Once she found all the things on the list it was time to check out.  I set up her toy cash register had some plastic grocery bags ready and gave her some play money.  After I rang up all the items I told my daughter how much money she owed.  At this point I had her count out how many dollars she needed so that she could pay for her groceries.


Finally, she was ready to load up her carriage with all her goodies and off she went........"thanks for shopping - come again!!"


Their are many ways to share pretend play with your child.  Most times you don't have to 'set up' anything.  Children tend to pretend play and use their imaginations on their own.  However, here are some other ideas to encourage pretend play with your child:

Dress up clothes
Stuffed animals
Dolls
Books
Cardboard box
Blankets
Paper
Envelopes
Stickers
Crayons

How does your child pretend play?  Share with us in the comments below or visit us on our Facebook page.






18 comments:

  1. Great ideas! Pretend play is so important - and fun! One of my favorite pretend play scenarios is "office." Old note pads, junk mail, tape, pencils, phone, old computer keyboard... My day care kids used to love "going to work" like their parents.

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    1. Angela, I love that idea too! When my son was about my daughter's age he loved to play mailman; gave him a bag, envelopes, stickers and he would deliver the 'mail' Thanks for stopping by!!

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  2. I love pretend play ideas! Shops are always a hit!

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  3. This looks a lot of fun! My kids are often in their own little imaginary play worlds, but I like the idea of setting up the odd thing for them, too, like this one #ParentingPinItParty

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    1. It's great to see kids using their imaginations! As I write this my daughter is playing horsie and galloping around the house, lol!!

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  4. Too cute! I really need to do this more often with my son. This will be great as we begin learning about money and strengthening his math skills.

    Thank you for sharing! :)

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    1. Yes, definitely a great way to learn math by using the money!

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  5. Oh such a good idea for a play! Thank you for linking up with the #pinitparty

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    1. We had fun and got to reuse some of the old food boxes!

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  6. This looks so fun! I love pretend play. Thank you for sharing with the Frugal Family linky!

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    1. Thanks, Laura!! Learning while playing is the ultimate best!!

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  7. Pretend play is so important, so much fun and uses a great free resource your child's imagination. Thanks so much for linking up to Family Frugal Linky. Hope to see you there again tomorrow.

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    1. totally agree, Nicola! A child's imagination is a beautiful thing!

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  8. I love pretend play activities....where kids are learning and having fun in the process. Thanks for linking up to the Preschool & Kindergarten Community Weekly Link-Up!

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    1. me too, Jolanthe! Kids imaginations is a great place!!

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  9. Mine kids love, love, love playing grocery store! I was better at setting one up with my oldest, but the younger two figure it out and have a good time.

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    1. My son and daughter both love it but enjoy it differently, funny!!

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