Pretend play

by Shelley Heaphy

One of the things I love most about children is their ability to pretend. They can become anything or anyone at the drop of a hat. One minute your child is well, your child and the next minute they may be their teacher or grandma’s dog. The stories they can come up with are hilarious and often similar to real life. They love to mimic those they trust and admire and often that means they play out scenes that have happened right in their own homes.
Graduating from Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) and working in both daycares and classrooms have given me many chances to explore pretend play. In ECCE each student had to come up with a prop box which was a bin filled with things to pull out for children surrounding a pretend play theme. For instance, you might fill your bin with things to play pirates, ice cream shop, birthday party, or beach day. This was one of my favourite projects in school. Having these bins at your disposal when working in daycare was like gold.