23 Oct Imaginative Play by Ilana Glasman, Kinder Room Leader
Every day in creche we are building your children’s foundations in order to prepare them for their future. How you may ask? Well, by getting their career goals on track to be future members of the community. Over the last few weeks, we have been focusing on the health care practitioners. We have set up a small hospital and now we have a room full of budding doctors.
The children have thoroughly embraced this play /pretend area. Pretend play has multiple benefits for children. They loved playing doctor with their friends, toys and of course their teachers. A child’s imagination is simply amazing. Using their imagination, children conjure up a variety of games for themselves. Pretend play builds skills in many broad areas. While engaging in pretend play with toys and their friends and teachers have brought up some beautiful and interesting words and phrases.
Such as “I will get you a Panadol from my house to make you better”, and “Shhh we need to be quiet so Patcha (one of the educators) can rest. Also, there was a beautiful comment “Don’t worry, I will look after you “. Children are great masters of imitation; they pick up new words from almost everywhere. Engaging in pretend play allows them to use these words and enhances their understanding of them.
Social and emotional skills: Pretend play helps your child experiment with different social roles. By imagining himself in someone else’s shoes, your child begins to understand and develop empathy. Engaging in pretend play with other children also helps them learn the importance of taking turns, sharing responsibility, and knowing when to lead and when to follow.
So, whether they will end up as a doctors, builders, chefs, musician, or artist it all starts from here, in creche, where we will help them find their passion. We will encourage them to pursue their natural talents to provide them the best start to their future endeavours and passion.