Showing posts with label pretend play. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pretend play. Show all posts

Apr 9, 2018

Importance & Benefits Of Pretend Play For Kids

pretend play importance benefits kids

Pretend plays are so much fun! Kids learn a lot while pretending to be someone else. Read on to know the importance & benefits of pretend play. And look at what my 2 year old son did when he pretended to become a farmer & vegetable vendor.


Vegetable shopping anyone? My toddler has become a farmer and has got some fresh veggies from his farm. The rates are very reasonable, 2 or 3 Rs for each vegetable. Rush before the stock ends!




He sold all the veggies to me, strictly after weighing them, and put all of them into the jute bag except baby corn. That is for him exclusively, he said.


During pretend play, a child uses objects to represent something else while giving it action and motion. But this pretend play is not as simple as it may seem. 

The process of pretending builds skills in many essential developmental areas.

Social and Emotional Skills
A child experiments with social roles & relationships of life while pretending to be someone else. He has conversation to himself and others. He learns how to take turns, share responsibility, and creatively problem-solve. When your child pretends to be different characters, he has the experience of "walking in someone else's shoes," which helps teach the important moral development skill of empathy. The child begins to understand the feelings of others. The child also builds self-esteem when he discovers he can be anything just by pretending!

Language Skills
It is hilarious sometimes to listen when a child engages in imaginary play with his toys or friends? I many times hear some words and phrases I never thought he knew! In fact, I often hear my own words & phrases when my son does some kind of pretend play. Pretend play helps your child understand the power of language. 

Thinking Skills
If you think only mazes or puzzles give your child something to think about, then that is not right. Setting up a pretend play scene requires some real thinking & planning skills. They try out new ideas, new ways to solve problems, new ways to resolve conflicts and a whole variety of life skills.

Pretend plays are so much fun & enriching too!!!

What kinds of pretend play does your child involve in? Do share in the comments below.


Do not forget to follow "The K Junction" on Facebook page & closed Facebook group, Twitter and Instagram for day to day updates that might not always find a place on this blog. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to know more about our early learning journey, DIY & Montessori & Waldorf inspired activities for kids, kids books & toys reviews and much more!


Hope to see you around. Happy Parenting!


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Sep 29, 2017

How To Setup DIY Durga Puja Pandal At Home With Kids This Navratri

durga puja pandal diy kids children preschooler navratri bengali mythology India

Durga Puja is here & I love to involve my preschooler in the festivities in a hands-on way. If you have seen Durga Puja pandals with your child, you would love to try this DIY Durga pandal that my son created at home. It was a great open-ended play for my preschooler and he unleashed his creativity while doing this & learnt few things about Indian mythology. I will also share some more activities in the coming days for Dussehra & Navratri that you can try out. 

We had gone for Durga Puja pandal hopping two days back. Here is one pandal that we absolutely loved. It was setup by Bengali samaaj.  


And then, I thought let us make a Durga Puja pandal at home with my 2 year old son. He loves open-ended play & playing with blocks. And he is so fascinated these days with Gods & their savaaris (vehicles) because it is festival season here - Ganpati festival, then Navratri & coming is Diwali & then Christmas. How I love quarter 4 since my childhood!!!

They say that during Durga Puja, Durga Mata visits Earth along with her four children - Ganesha, Laxmi, Saraswati, Kartikeya. And believe me, being a North Indian, I did not know this fact until last year! It was only when I was reading this awesome book on "Festivals Of India" to my son, in the Durga Puja section (How it is celebrated in West Bengal), I came to know about this. Motherhood teaches you so many things!


We are loving these titles & you might also want to check out this ultimate compilation of Indian mythology books for kids to read this Dussehra & Navratri season. 

So I took images of these Gods & Goddesses from a cut & paste book for kids, laminated them at home without a laminator using THIS method, gathered the figurines of the animals & birds who are the savaaris of these Gods & a small elevated step to act as a stage of the pandal. Then my son started setting up the pandal. We used the stands from his another play-set to hold the laminated images of the Gods in place. 


Then my son matched the figurines to the Gods based on whose savaari it was. 


Then he wanted to decorate the pandal as he had seen in the real pandals. So he used his good old Fisherprice Megabloks to make boundaries and decorations around the pandal. 



He spent a lot of time doing this while I got to work in my kitchen. This was a great quiet time activity & so therapeutic & unwinding for him! 

This is a close-up view of our DIY Durga Puja pandal

Check out Ganesha with a rat, Laxmi with an owl, Durga with a lion, Saraswati with a swan and Kartikey with a peacock.


Take a look at the decoration that my son did with his megabloks. Such a colorful pandal, along with cars parked on the right!




Read how a preschooler can also make a toran out of Ashoka tree leaves himself to put up on your main door this Dussehra & festival season.


And here is some extended decoration on the left as you can see, perhaps parking area or food stalls!



Learning Outcomes 

Needless to say, my 2 year old son absolutely enjoyed this activity. He spent some good 30 minutes decorating the pandal. Here are some learning outcomes of this simple activity.
  • Unleashing creativity
  • Open-ended play
  • Quiet time
  • Learning about Indian traditions & customs
  • Conversation starter for Indian mythology, Gods, Goddesses
  • Memory recall of the pandal visit & recreating something from memory
  • Knowing about savaari of Gods
Read more about activities you can do with your toddler this festival HERE. This is a set of activities that I setup for my son last year when he was 19 months old. 

Hope you liked this collection. I would love to see what you are doing with your child this festival season. 

Did you like this post? The I would love if you can share this with your friends on your social media!


Do not forget to follow us on Facebook page & closed Facebook group, Twitter and Instagram for day to day updates that might not always find a place on this blog. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to know more about our early learning journey, DIY & Montessori-inspired activities for kids, kids books & toys reviews and much more!


Hope to see you around. Happy Parenting!


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Jan 12, 2017

Cheap, Simple And Quick Learning Activity Ideas Using Tape (VLOG)


Did you know you could use that tape lying in your stationary items for learning for your toddlers or preschoolers? Here in this video are few simple, cheap & quick ideas to use a simple colored tape to enhance skills like gross motor, fine motor, prewriting & much more. Not to forget, creativity, free play & pretend play brings out the most of any learning activity in kids :) So go ahead & try this out & do let me know how your kid liked it!


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Oct 6, 2016

5 Reasons Why You Must Stock 3D Miniature Toys at Home

My love for miniatures and figurines is immense. It has become more so after I’ve seen how effectively they’ve worked in improving my child’s ability to learn as compared to learning from a 2D point of view in books or flashcards. 
So, I keep my eyes wide open and whenever I find interesting little miniature toys, I grab them. Now, I proudly own a huge collection and they range from vehicles to animals and birds; fruits to vegetables and equipment to even utensils.

Here are 5 reasons why I feel 3D miniatures and figurines are an awesome addition to your child's toy collection.
My article has been featured on BabyChakra. Click HERE to read. 
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Sep 19, 2016

The Ostrich Who Came For Tea - Pretend Play

The other day, I posted on my facebook page about how & why I love figurines & miniatures. And how open ended they are for a child to enjoy & play with.

Today, my 19 months old was enjoying in the swing leisurely when he suddenly wanted to get down. I helped him get down & he ran to another room & grabbed the ostrich from the animal figurines basket. He kept on playing with the ostrich for some time & then grabbed his tea set. Little did I know he had actually invited the ostrich for tea & snacks!

As you can see in the pic, from left to right, top to bottom, he first laid out the saucers, put cups over them, prepared tea & mixed sugar with the spoon, tasted the tea himself, invited the ostrich for tea, offered him tea & snacks by spoon himself, and then drank his tea himself!

I love how free play/pretend play brings forth the creativity in a child. All these were his own ideas :) Oh yes, he offered me some tea as well at the end!

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