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Pretend-play Ideas & Activities for Children to Play, Learn & Grow

Pretend_Jumpstart

In the previous blog, we have discussed – How Pretend-play Spurs Learning, Growth & Development in Children. Please click here to read in you haven’t. 

Pretend play, also known as make-believe, can encourage development, as children learn through new dramatic play ideas, activities and games. In the process of creating and managing a restaurant together, roaming around in an elder’s shoes, or enacting with friends in a fairy-tale world, children learn and discover ways to imagine, co-ordinate, co-operate and solve problems.

At Jumpstart International Preschool, pretend play is one of the crucial ways that we employ to encourage learning, growth, and development. As a parent, you can further promote this in the following ways at home:

Recreate & imagine stories:

Encourage your child to recreate his/her favorite story by adding their own twist and turns and imagining what would happen further. Try to trigger their ideas by asking questions such as: “What do you think happened next?”, “What if the boy didn’t find his friend?” etc.

Give them dolls & puppets to play:

Pretend_JumpstartGive your child ample and regular access to toys like dolls, stuffed animals more puppets. However, it is not necessary that they must be store-bought. You can use your own craft and imagination such as making them out of paper, socks, wool, etc. Through imaginative play, children assign feelings and ideas to their toys and often use them to express, explore and work out their own feelings, ideas and thoughts.

Build & play with “Prop Boxes”:

Regular boxes, bins, crates and bags available at home can be themed with dramatic play materials and situations. Prop boxes can be a great way to spur your child’s imagination. Let them have a creative experience with the box. The prop boxes can become anything and everything including office, restaurant, castle, post office, shoe store, etc. You can decorate the box with a few materials to give it a look and feel and let your child’s creativity take it from there.

Make time & space:

When children are engrossed in pretend-play, they need uninterrupted time to play and explore ideas. In order to allow your child to fully explore and develop his/her creativity and imagination, give them their time and space

Nowadays, when a lot of the child’s time is taken up by scheduled activities, it is essential to understand what he/she might lose by missing out on pretend-play. In fact, a few hours of pretending to be a doctor and treating a patient or creating a castle and riding horses around the house with fellow soldiers is as essential as any other developmental activity.

So next time you see your child engaged in pretend play, don’t divert them. Let them pretend that they are astronauts and build a spaceship from cardboards and papers. Also, you can get involved and help your astronaut by crafting a helmet from foil and a bowl; it will be fun!

For more such information and tips check out the other blogs by our staff.

Happy Parenting!!!

 

You may also want to read:

Pretend Play

Exploring The Benefits Of Sensory Play

33 thoughts on “Pretend-play Ideas & Activities for Children to Play, Learn & Grow”

  1. Thats an amazing thought.. by allowing the child to engage in pretend play as a parent one can observe and co relate their child’s interest towards particular activity..

  2. Yes, pretend play is a very good way to develop Existential Intelligence and help the children think and relate to the real world.

    1. Pretend play are truly helpful for our children to learn alot of new things in very different ways.. Please it is so much fun… Cant agree more to the blog ..

  3. Yes, I totally agree to the above Blog. Pretend play activities are the most loved activities by the children. They explore themselves as so many new people Eg :- A doctor, A florist and so on.. etc. Pretend play helps boost their imagination power and upgrade their skill. A Small setup with few required objects/toys and lots of time is essential and that’s it to keep a child engaged and see how much fun they have with it. Exchanging of thoughts, communication, learning, child’s curiosity, their likes and dislikes are also observed during such plays which is also important to understand their development.
    #Funplay #Pretendplay.

  4. Parents can help children learn general information about the world through pretend play. It’s been seen as a pathway to enhanced cognitive skills and more effective learning. It encourage creativity later in life.

    Thank you Jumpstart Preschool for providing such platform which will help my child to develop social skills and self-discovery.

  5. Well written:)
    This blog successfully adds a lot to a parent and child’s learning through pretend-play.

  6. Even I personally feel, Pretend play is the best way to improve child’s communication, language and social skills. Social emotional quotient of the child also improves a lot because of Pretend plays. The blog is written nice.

  7. Very true,pretend play is a perfect way of engaging a child in which he/,she get a chance of enhancing their knowledge. Lovely ideas shared by Jumpstart.

  8. The concept of pretend play is really very nice.
    Children actually learn many concepts in their play time itself. The article serves the purpose and parents should also get involved in it is a very good suggestion given in the article.
    Looking forward for more blogs to read and get more knowledge from it.
    Thankyou Jumpstart.

  9. These tips are really helpful for teachers and parents equally as play is the best form children can get engaged in. They learn by them selves through the exploration and these types will really encourage their growth and development

  10. That’s truly said .. Pretend play helps children to show there imagination level through the things or puppets used for pretend play. Jumpstart international preschool helps children to do so through various pretend plays. It’s a wonderful place for kids to throw their level of ideas and imaginations and learn through different experiential events.

  11. Indeed pretend play is very important for a child. It develops there social and emotional skills, language skills and thinking skills. It enhance the child’s imagination power and make them creative.Thanks jumpstart for putting up so informative and to the point information .

  12. This is very helpful for all the parents, specially being a mother I want to say that it’s an real time experience for our children. This will not only keep them engaged in activities but will also be informative for them in an innovative manner. Children are very keen and attentive in such activities. Thank you for sharing such a helpful information.

  13. The best part which I Like is let children have their own twist and turn.. In pretend play..
    Imagination has no limit.. Let It get explored in a way the child wants…

  14. Children learn to play a important role when they enact by themselves . Jumpstart always motivates our rising stars to come up their talents and learn the importance of the character in pretend play .

  15. Really nice and helpful write up
    Pretend play helps the children to improve their emotional, social skills also develop their thinking and problems solving ability and give them chance to explore &experiment

  16. Very well written and put up. This is very helpful to connect with children, build a bond and also help children communicate their ideas.

  17. Children are gifted with the talent of imagination with no obstacles. The blog will help children to cherish the gift of imagination through Pretend play. I liked the idea of investing the time of children in it and letting them explore their own world. Well written article and very informative.👍🏻

    1. Totally agreed to this… Pretend play help children to learn and discover different things..
      Plus pretend play are so much fun to learn with.

  18. Very well written and the concept is very useful to develop the imagination powers in the children

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