Imagination Play on a Rainy Day

Before I became a mom, I use to love rainy days. I would stay in my pajamas all day and lounge on the couch while watching my favorite movies. Or I would curl up in bed with a good book. But now that I am a mother of a very active preschooler, a rainy day equal cabin fever! Instead of getting in a rut of parking your child in from the TV when the weather is bad, take the opportunity to have a fun day of imaginary play. Here are some fun pretend play activities to keep your preschooler entertained on a rainy day.

Vet: One of my daughter's favorite games is to play vet. She pretends she is the vet and I am the pets owner. We use her stuffed animals as the pets. Look around the house for other fun props to use, for example, we use toilet paper to wrap as bandages and casts on her stuffed animals. We also use cotton balls to clean the animals "owie". Encourage your child to come up with ideas and props to make the animal better. The more your preschooler has to use his or her imagination the better!

Grocery Store: Here is another favorite game we like to play. To set up your grocery store, place canned food from your kitchen around the living room. Someone pretends to be the shopper, while the other person in the cashier. The shopper goes around the room "shopping" by picking out the food he/she wants and placing it in the shopping cart. If your child does not have a toy shopping cart a basket from around the house works well too. When it is time to check out the cashier rings up the food and bags it (we use plastic shopping bags we save from the store). A good alternative to a toy cashier machine would be a calculator. We even clip coupons for the shopper to use (hey it's never too early to start installing money saving tips to your child). Then we play again and reverse the roles.

Restaurant: Every preschool loves this game. The customer sits at the table and looks over the menu (we create the menu in advance on colored construction paper). The waiter or waitress comes up with a pad of paper and a pen to take the order. This creates a great opportunity for your preschooler to practice their writing skills. Then it's time the waiter/waitress to bring out the customers drink and meal. We sometimes use plastic play food, other times we just use our imagination a play with imaginary food. Play again and reverse the roles.

Using simple props and tops from around the house can provide hours of imaginative play for your preschooler. These games can also provide valuable learning opportunities for your child. Creating a play menu and writing down orders in the restaurant game gives you a fun chance to teach letters and gives your child a reason to practice writing. Using real money in the grocery store game, gives you another great opportunity to introduce the value of money to your child and to practice counting. But most importantly, these games create fun and loving memories between you and your child that will last a lifetime.