A child's imagination is something to be encouraged and
treasured. Young children learn many skills through imagination,
from independent play, interactive play, language and cognitive
skills to name a few. Pretend play and dress up are wonderful
ways to allow your child to dream and act out all sorts of fun
adventures.

There are a wide variety of excellent toys available to enhance
their imaginative experiences some of which include; cooking and
baking toys, dress-up costumes, gardening toys, housekeeping
toys, money and banking sets, spy gadgetry toys, tools and
puppets.

Your child probably watches you preparing and cooking meals
everyday. There are many cooking and baking toys available that
allow your child to have hours of entertainment. Some of the
wonderful toys manufactured are; picnic baskets (complete with
play bread, cheese, lettuce, hot dog and bun, ketchup, corn on
the cob etc.), bakery sets, plastic food sets, a wide variety of
tea pot sets, pots and pans, dinnerware sets (complete with
plates, utensils, bowls and cups) and coffee sets. It's easy for
your child to set up their own little imaginary kitchen with
ovens that actually bake cookies, working mini refrigerators,
plastic refrigerators, microwaves, stoves, barbecue's and
toasters. Little shopping markets complete with plastic store
items and cash registers can be purchased, along with gum ball
machines and sno-cone machines, the list really is endless.

Dress up play is a favorite among all ages of children, whether
it's dressing up in dad's baseball uniform or having fun with
mom's closet. There is a great variety of all sorts of different
types of costumes, masks and accessories for children to select
from. Costumes come in designs such as fireman and police
uniforms, doctor and veterinarian uniforms, engineer suits,
magic hats with cape and gloves, dresses, waitress outfits,
cherubs, devils, witches, ballerina and popular character suits
with capes and muscle chests to name a few. Great accessories
such as crowns, tiara sets, ninja swords, light sabers, cowboy
hats, purses complete with keys and cell phones, doctor and
medical kits and magic kits can be found. Dress up play allows
your child to use their imagination in a fun way through role
play and acting out adventures.

For all the young outdoor landscaping enthusiasts there are
wonderful gardening tools and accessories available. Little
wheelbarrows are made in plastic and metal designs (tiny metal
designs look and work as well as the adult counterparts), both
helpful at removing dirt, weeds and gravel around the yard.
Metal and plastic gardening pails, watering cans, mini gardening
sets (complete with mini rake, shovel and trowels), gardening
aprons, gardening totes with seeds (mini rake, shovel, trowel
and pail), gardening rakes, shovels and gardening gloves can
also be purchased. Other adorable gardening sets include
planters, seeds and tiny fairy cottages ready for planting
around.

Probably the only time your child will enjoy housekeeping is
when they are young. Most children seem to love helping out mom
or dad with cleaning and simple household chores. With this said
you'll find many housekeeping toys to keep your child busy and
entertained for hours on end. Vacuums, cleaning sets (complete
with broom, mops, gloves and pails), talking irons and ironing
boards, working sewing machines and clothes washers are a few of
the items to be found.

An encouraging and fun way to help children understand early on
how money works is to have them play with money and banking toys
and games. There are a variety of cash registers available
complete with play money, fake credit cards, price scanners,
price check microphones and readouts offering learning
opportunities for several skills from motor skills, mathematical
skills and cognitive skills.

Today there are more spy gadgetry toys available than ever
before. There are spy listeners (allowing children to listen in
on other rooms or to use as stethoscopes), detective sets, mini
keyboard transmitters allowing children to send text messages to
each other, spy goggles, motion detector sets with infrared
sensors, spy cameras available in sunglasses or wristband styles
(complete with real film) and walkie talkies. Spy pens come with
a variety of options from activated motion alarms, flashlights
and magnifying glasses. These toys not only offer hours of
entertainment but toys such as the motion detectors and infrared
sensors teach children basic electronic skills.

Kids love to do things around the house just like dad or mom,
especially anything to do with tools. Complete tool sets for
children are available with tool belts, tool chests and tool
boxes. Any tool imaginable from saws, levels, planers, wrenches,
screw drivers, drills and hammers can be found. Workshops
(complete with bins to store tools) with work horses and work
benches can provide the base for all your child's building
adventures. And for when your child ventures outdoors to do some
work there are mini working wheelbarrows, weed trimmers,
lawnmowers, rakes, shovels, hoes, chain saws (with sound
effects) and leaf blowers to complete the job. Of course you'll
want to be sure they always wear their hard hat.

Lastly, another popular part of pretend play is the use of
puppets. Puppets can be found in hand puppet, finger puppet,
bath puppet, baby puppet, pop-up and marionette designs. Along
with puppets there are puppets accessories and wonderful puppet
theaters to add to the fun. There is no end to the available
puppet designs from cartoon characters, fantasy (fairies,
wizards), people and animals (aquatic, birds, bugs, dinosaurs,
dogs, farm animals, fish and frogs to name only a few). You and
your child can either make a puppet theater or purchase one of
the many puppet theaters offered from tabletop theaters, floor
standing, doorway and marionette theaters. Pop-up puppets are a
fun way to play peek-a-boo with a child or hide and seek.
Puppets are a great way to interact and have imaginative play
with your child.

Imaginative play is an important part of play. Role playing and
dress up allow children to experiment with the different roles
of the people they observe. The toys and accessories that
surround your child will let them identify with different
characters and try out various domestic roles. Imaginary play
helps children to adjust more easily to the challenges of our everyday
world.

Author: Valerie Giles