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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 and dolls. 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.
Valerie Giles - owns and operates
Toys-4-Kids (
www.toys-4-kids.com ) Educate your child
through play. Toys-4-kids is a web site full of resource
information and online toy stores. Purchase the right
educational toys for every child
throughout their growing years. The site focuses on many
categories of toys from baby toys, to outdoor toys and
bikes for kids, as well as Barbie Collectibles.
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