Beach In The Bedroom
Overview
Pretend a bedroom is a beach.
Materials
Setup
- Tell your toddler that you're going to pretend her bedroom is the beach. You might want to show her pictures of a beach first, if she doesn't know what it is.
- Spread the beach towel out on the floor.
- Dress her in a bathing suit.
How to Play
Part of the fun is dressing up. My daughter enjoys trying to put her bathing suit on by herself. She usually gets her body in the arm holes, but she has fun. Besides that, you can tell her to pretend she's lying on her beach towel on the beach, watching the waves and the seagulls.
When that gets old (it won't take long), point to an area of the room and pretend there's water there. Let your child "swim" in the pretend water for a bit. When she's tired of that, dry her off with the beach towel, and tell her it's time to pack up and go home.
Then, if your daughter is like mine, repeat about 20 times.
Grocery Store
Overview
Pretend you're buying groceries and your toddler is the cashier. Then switch roles.
Materials
- Soup Cans
- Small boxes of cereal, mashed potatoes, etc.
- Various small groceries that your toddler can easily handle
- Play paper money (or just paper cut up to be about the same size as real money)
- Basket, bag, or toy shopping cart if you have one
Setup
- Tell your toddler that her room is a grocery store.
- Ask her to help you put out all the groceries so people can buy them.
How to Play
Pick up a particular grocery item and ask your toddler, "How much is this?" No matter what she tells you, you should probably go along with it and put it in your basket, telling her, "Okay, I want to buy it." Then after awhile, switch roles, so that she is buying the groceries and you're the cashier. She'll have fun just putting items in the basket.
For very young toddlers, you might pick up a particular grocery item that she would recognize and ask, "What is this?"
For older toddlers, if you're playing the cashier, you might tell them something costs a certain dollar amount. See if they can give you the right amount of dollars for it. If you're playing the part of the shopper, you might hold out some of your play money and ask, "Is this enough?" Count the "money" together to see if it is.
