Last night after dinner, my four-year-old son was playing outside on a nice, crisp Fall evening. He ran back into the kitchen to ask me to come outside. It was showtime. I grabbed my cup of warm coffee and headed outside to enjoy the show. It was an amazing, eye-popping, fast-paced bike show. Well to him […]
Detective Puzzle for Kids – Free Printable Do your kids or students love to play secret spy agent or detective? Children seem to love sneaking around spying on people or completing secret missions. Whether it be to save the World, stop a criminal or solve a mystery, pretend to be a secret agent is tons […]
How to Play Pretend Post Office Do your children love to play pretend? And do your kids love to get mail? Here are simple directions on how to play pretend post office. My youngest is OBSESSED with the mail. He mails people artwork, letters, and candy all the time. It is a wonderful hobby for […]
Four Processes of Pretend Play and Why It is Important Did you know that children typically progress through age-related ‘stages’ or ‘levels’ of pretend play, based on four processes? Piaget described three cognitive processes of pretend play and Nicolich proposed the fourth process. You may ask why you need to know this information? The reason is that […]
Pretend Play Fishing Indoor Play Do you find that your children love pretend play? Here at our house, it is the NUMBER ONE activity for the younger children and always has been. Whether it be playing house, school or doctor the children become lost in the art of play. Today, we went on a “camping” […]
The Batman Effect in Children Have you ever heard of the Batman effect in children? I had not until I read a recent article in the Wall Street Journal about the power of pretend play. It discusses recent research supporting the theory that children who pretend they are superheroes do better on measures of self-control and […]
Focus on Pretend Play to Help with Early Literacy During early literacy, it is important for young children to develop personal responses to written text. Past research indicated that story play contributes to construction of meaning. A form of symbolic play directly related to children’s literature is book related pretend play. This type of play […]
