SKIP
Simplifying Parenting
How Toys Teach (What You Should Consider Before You Buy Toys!)
Tips to teach kids life skills through pretend play and role play
The advantages of pretend play range from social skills and empathy (by negotiating and also role play of walking in the shoes of another), an appreciation for relationships, emotional competence, cognitive development and more.
As kids, trips to the grocery store, market, post office, airports, coffee- shops and restaurants, and even a visit to the doctor at the hospital, were fertile grounds for our next playtime. Tinker, tailor, soldier sailor, rich man, thief, and cop – we have played them all without knowing that this was teaching us life skills to deal with what comes in our adult lives. Pretend-play meaning young ones emulating actions and conversations that they have observed from adults in their lives may seem a relatively new term but has been in existence as long as time. (Even animals young resort to mock wrestling, mock hunting, and hiding and seeking, etc.)
