The Land of Make Believe

When I was little I remember watching Mr. Roger's Neighborhood. I remember waiting and waiting until finally the "Land of Make Believe" would be on. I loved this part - I'm not sure if it was the striped tiger, or purple panda, or King Friday, or even the mix of real people and puppets, but this was the best part of the show. I loved how the trolley took us on a magical ride to the land of make believe, and as a child, I thought I was really leaving Mr. Roger's house and entering a whole new world.

I think as we get older we forget about the Land of Make Believe and all it has to offer us - an escape from reality. Luckily, our kids learn very early how to play in the land of make believe. This offers them opportunity to recreate television shows, stories, and create new stories all on their own. It is important to foster this creativity in our children. Pretend play is a break from structure, routine, and the known. It allows children to work on their language and begin to create their own stories and situations.

I have been noticing what Pat has done in his own world of make believe this week.

• pushed the shopping cart over to window, took out all the food items and created a store. Then used the shopping cart to "buy" things from the store. This also allowed Shannon to practice standing at the window and transfer items to and from the shopping cart.
• "click-clock, click-clock, click-clock" is often heard when Patrick is pretending to be a horse. He also sings a song that he learned from a youtube video and practices the line "He walks, He trots, He runs, He gallops and gallops and gallops."
• drives his car to various places (Mimi's house, Grammie's house, the store to get ice cream, etc.)
• sets up train and has different people, dinosaurs, and animals get on and off. As I write this he is pretending to look for King, the dinosaur (recreating an episode from Dinosaur Train)

Your challenge - Allow your children extra time to play in the land of make believe and observe them. Watch how he/she creates a dialogue, notice how the different toys are used in new and different ways and don't interupt them!