- Establish a dress-up corner in your home where you put old clothing and personal accessories (pocketbooks, hats, costume jewelry, Halloween costumes, etc.)
- Keep crayons, watercolors, clay, construction paper and glue in an accessible place.
- Put on a play with your child based on a story she knows or, even better, based on a story that the child makes up herself. You can relate this to a holiday, wedding or other event.
- Provide blankets and sheets for building tents and other imaginative games.
- Encourage your child to build with construction toys and other toys, such as Playmobile, that give your child props to create their own world.
- Make up songs and stories together. Take turns. You say one line or sentence and she says the next.
- Spend as much time as possible in nature, preferably in wild places.
- If your child wants you to, get involved in his fantasy. Get on that imaginary boat, be a second-in-command on that spaceship, be the Daddy in the pretend family. Be sure to let your child take the lead.
- In the toy corner, have fabric, seashells, stones, sticks, boards, pine cones, string, rope and other open-ended materials.
- If you see your child daydreaming, don't interrupt.
By Esther Boylan Wolfson Director, Early Childhood Development Center
These tips were reprinted from
Wholefamily.com
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