Noah's
Children
Noah's Children: Pretend Play and Dress Up
Encourages Imaginative Play
A child’s imagination is something to be
encouraged and treasured. Young children learn many skills through
imagination, from independent play, interactive play, language and
cognitive skills to name a few. Pretend play and dress up are wonderful
ways to allow your child to dream and act out all sorts of fun adventures."
There are a wide variety of excellent toys available to enhance
their imaginative experiences some of which include; cooking and
baking toys, dress-up costumes, gardening toys, housekeeping toys,
money and banking sets, spy gadgetry toys, tools and puppets.
Your child probably watches you preparing and cooking meals everyday,
all the cooking and baking toys available allow your child to have
hours of entertainment. Some of the wonderful toys manufactured
are; picnic baskets (complete with play bread, cheese, lettuce,
hot dog and bun, ketchup, corn on the cob etc.), bakery sets, plastic
food sets, a wide variety of tea pot sets, pots and pans, dinnerware
sets (complete with plates, utensils, bowls and cups) and coffee
sets. It’s easy for your child to set up their own little
imaginary kitchen with ovens that actually bake cookies, working
mini refrigerators, plastic refrigerators, microwaves, stoves, barbecue’s
and toasters. Little shopping markets complete with plastic store
items and cash registers can be purchased, along with gum ball machines
and sno-cone machines, the list really is endless.
Dress up play is a favorite among all ages of children, whether
it’s dressing up in dad’s baseball uniform or having
fun with mom’s closet. There is a great variety of all sorts
of different types of costumes, masks and accessories for children
to select from. Costumes come in designs such as fireman and police
uniforms, doctor and veterinarian uniforms, engineer suits, magic
hats with cape and gloves, dresses, waitress outfits, cherubs, devils,
witches, ballerina and popular character suits with capes and muscle
chests to name a few. Great accessories such as crowns, tiara sets,
ninja swords, light sabers, cowboy hats, purses complete with keys
and cell phones, doctor and medical kits and magic kits can be found.
Dress up play allows your child to use their imagination in a fun
way through role play and acting out adventures.
For all the young outdoor landscaping enthusiasts there are wonderful
gardening tools and accessories available. Little wheelbarrows are
made in plastic and metal designs (tiny metal designs look and work
as well as the adult counterparts), both helpful at removing dirt,
weeds and gravel around the yard. Metal and plastic gardening pails,
watering cans, mini gardening sets (complete with mini rake, shovel
and trowels), gardening aprons, gardening totes with seeds (mini
rake, shovel, trowel and pail), gardening rakes, shovels and gardening
gloves can also be purchased. Other adorable gardening sets include
planters, seeds and tiny fairy cottages ready for planting around.
Probably the only time your child will enjoy housekeeping is when
they are young. Most children seem to love helping out mom or dad
with cleaning and simple household chores. With this said you’ll
find many housekeeping toys to keep your child busy and entertained
for hours on end. Vacuums, cleaning sets (complete with broom, mops,
gloves and pails), talking irons and ironing boards, working sewing
machines and clothes washers are a few of the items to be found.
An encouraging and fun way to help children understand early on
how money works is to have them play with money and banking toys
and games. There are a variety of cash registers available complete
with play money, fake credit cards, price scanners, price check
microphones and readouts offering learning opportunities for several
skills from motor skills, mathematical skills and cognitive skills.
Today there are more spy gadgetry toys available than ever before.
There are spy listeners (allowing children to listen in on other
rooms or to use as stethoscopes), detective sets, mini keyboard
transmitters allowing children to send text messages to each other,
spy goggles, motion detector sets with infrared sensors, spy cameras
available in sunglasses or wristband styles (complete with real
film) and walkie talkies. Spy pens come with a variety of options
from activated motion alarms, flashlights and magnifying glasses.
These toys not only offer hours of entertainment but toys such as
the motion detectors and infrared sensors teach children basic electronic
skills.
Kids love to do things around the house just like dad or mom, especially
anything to do with tools. Complete tool sets for children are available
with tool belts, tool chests and tool boxes. Any tool imaginable
from saws, levels, planers, wrenches, screw drivers, drills and
hammers can be found. Workshops (complete with bins to store tools)
with work horses and work benches can provide the base for all your
child’s building adventures. And for when your child ventures
outdoors to do some work there are mini working wheelbarrows, weed
trimmers, lawnmowers, rakes, shovels, hoes, chain saws (with sound
effects) and leaf blowers to complete the job. Of course you’ll
want to be sure they always wear their hard hat.
Lastly another popular part of pretend play is the use of puppets.
Puppets can be found in hand puppet, finger puppet, bath puppet,
baby puppet, pop-up and marionette designs. Along with puppets there
are puppets accessories and wonderful puppet theaters to add to
the fun. There is no end to the available puppet designs from cartoon
characters, fantasy (fairies, wizards), people and animals (aquatic,
birds, bugs, dinosaurs, dogs, farm animals, fish and frogs to name
only a few). You and your child can either make a puppet theater
or purchase one of the many puppet theaters offered from tabletop
theaters, floor standing, doorway and marionette theaters. Pop-up
puppets are a fun way to play peek-a-boo with a child or hide and
seek. Puppets are a great way to interact and have imaginative play
with your child.
Imaginative play is an important part of play. Role playing and
dress up allow children to experiment with the different roles of
the people they observe. The toys and accessories that surround
your child will let them identify with different characters and
try out various domestic roles. Imaginary play helps children to
adjust more easily to the challenges of our everyday world.
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