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ONe thing we did when I taught preschool that really got the kids reeled into pretend was grocery day. The teachers for months would save boxes, cereal, mac and cheese, etc. We would also clean out butter containers, yogurt drink containers, milk jugs, etc. Add some egg cartons and some bags and the kids can play shop. We put the stuff all around the room and let the kids come through and shop using a laundry basket that they can slide around (slides really well on carpet!) We also gave them play money. One of us would pretent to check them out, complete with making beeping sounds when we scanned the items and punching buttons on an imaginary cash register. Then each child would take home thier "groceries" in a bag and also thier "change" in play money. Most of the parents said the kids played with these things over and over at home. At one point we found a toy washer and dryer and the kids loved them! So much so that when we had to send them over to another classroom I made some out of boxes. I also cut a peice of cardboard out into the shape of an ironing board and found a toy iron and added a basket of doll clothes and washclothes. The kids would spend lots of time pretending to wash and dry and iron the clothes. The best way to start pretend play is to let hem mimic things they see you do. Let them "cook" with pretend dishes or toy ones if you have them. Find a piece of rope and add a tp tube to one end and a box to the other. Then you have a gas station and they can fill up toy cars. If dad likes to work on the cars, then let them pretend to do that. Washing a toy car, or even mowing the lawn. After he is good at mimicing every day activities then you can move on to copying movies or tv shows or pets.
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