Pretend Play Workshop for Kids: A Year of DIY Craft Projects and Open-Ended Screen-Free Learning for Kids Ages 3-7
$11.67
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Discover simple ways to create rich, imaginative play experiences for your child using things you already have on hand.
What makes childhood feel magical? One simple word: PLAY! Play is crucial for children—it is fun, allows them to work through complex ideas and emotions, leads to a sense of mastery, and is also a key way kids learn. Regrettably, the technology and busyness of our modern lives leave little room for this fundamental and important part of childhood. Pretend Play Workshop for Kids offers a remedy with hours of dramatic play scenarios paired with simple crafts and fun activities—a rich resource for easy, ready-to-go alternatives to screentime.
Along the way, you will learn the benefits of these experiences, including the social and emotional learning taking place, the fine and gross motor practice, the language development, the mathematical thinking, and the scientific thinking. This allows you to set the scene for your little one, but also tailor it to their strengths and opportunities for growth.
Each chapter focuses on a different imaginative play setup, including:
Detective Office Post Office Spaceship Coffee Shop Art Museum Laundromat Ice Cream Shop Doctor’s Office Hair Salon Car Wash Train Station Toy Store
Within each chapter, find ideas for how to set the scene, instructions for crafting props, and activities that you can set up for your child. You’ll also discover time-saving tips, ways to extend the play, how to adapt activities for different age groups, and how engaging in the play and activities benefits your child.
Pretend Play Workshop for Kids will inspire you and deepen your understanding so that you can support your child in their play for years to come.
From the Publisher
Head to the Salon!
Set up a salon where your little one can care for all types of hair. They will be able to buzz, wash, and clip hair—pretend hair, that is!
Time for a Check-Up!
Create a doctor’s office where your little one can draw from their own experiences at the doctor to play and explore.
All Aboard!
Create a map of a train route, decorate luggage tags, punch train tickets, and even make a train whistle.
Publisher : Quarry Books
Publication date : August 15, 2023
Language : English
Print length : 144 pages
ISBN-10 : 0760381976
ISBN-13 : 978-0760381977
Item Weight : 2.31 pounds
Dimensions : 8.25 x 0.75 x 10.25 inches
Best Sellers Rank: #1,255,267 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #1,136 in Crafts for Children (Books) #1,193 in Family Activity #2,450 in Mixed-Media Craft
Customer Reviews: 4.9 4.9 out of 5 stars (39) var dpAcrHasRegisteredArcLinkClickAction; P.when(‘A’, ‘ready’).execute(function(A) { if (dpAcrHasRegisteredArcLinkClickAction !== true) { dpAcrHasRegisteredArcLinkClickAction = true; A.declarative( ‘acrLink-click-metrics’, ‘click’, { “allowLinkDefault”: true }, function (event) { if (window.ue) { ue.count(“acrLinkClickCount”, (ue.count(“acrLinkClickCount”) || 0) + 1); } } ); } }); P.when(‘A’, ‘cf’).execute(function(A) { A.declarative(‘acrStarsLink-click-metrics’, ‘click’, { “allowLinkDefault” : true }, function(event){ if(window.ue) { ue.count(“acrStarsLinkWithPopoverClickCount”, (ue.count(“acrStarsLinkWithPopoverClickCount”) || 0) + 1); } }); });
8 reviews for Pretend Play Workshop for Kids: A Year of DIY Craft Projects and Open-Ended Screen-Free Learning for Kids Ages 3-7
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$11.67
Amazon Customer –
A plus
Such a great book! Soooo much fun for everyone.
ERussell –
So great for implementing a screen free day!
I love the fresh and fun ideas in this book! We are trying to cut out screen time for my 3 year old and this book is full of fun creative play ideas. Plus they use materials that we already have in our house so there’s no need to buy extra stuff! This will be my go to bday gift for our friends 🙌
JustMe01 –
So many fun ideas!
As a busy parent with lots of responsibilities, I sometimes forget how to play. This book is filled with so many fun ideas for creative play with preschoolers and young elementary children. These activities are fun for them but are also a great way for parents to engage in pretend play, making memories that will last a lifetime. Using a few wooden crates and other inexpensive, readily available materials, I can create a post office, laundry station, doctor’s office, coffee shop, car wash and more. The full-color photos are beautiful and inspirational and the activities included are easy to quickly execute. While having artistic skills is helpful, it isn’t necessary. Anyone could easily create these activities.One of my favorite things about this book is that it encourages skill-building with fun activities. For instance, my three-year-old son and I made a post office and spent hours sorting and using fine motor skills to apply stamps and stickers to our homemade letters. We added our own touch by including a bell and a scale, so he worked on customer service and measuring skills as well. Each of the chapters provides multiple craft projects, ideas to extend play, helpful tips and skill shout outs, which provide tips and ideas for building gross and fine motor skills.This book would be great for any parent, grandparent or adult who works with young children. I am really enjoying it and highly recommend it for any person who wants to facilitate creative play.
cz –
Great Book
It is great book to have at home when you are out of ideas for fun activities for your kids.
SandC Taylor –
Perfect answer to “I’m Bored”
Every parent, grandparent, caregiver, babysitter, or teacher has been faced with the “What’s there to do?” and “I’m Bored” dilemma. Ask the kids, and the answer is typically some expensive or major-effort commercial entertainment. Now this Pretend Play Workshop for Kids book gets things back the way childhood should be with pages and pages of imagination-inspiring cheap playful fun activities. I recall fondly as a youngster in a small town many many years ago that there was a big field next to an apartment building full of kids plus all the rest of us kids who lived around there, and a huge multi-limbed tree had fallen and lay on its side in the field. That tree turned into a pirate ship, cops and robbers hideout, bucking broncos and cowboys (and girls) rounding up stray cattle, jungle adventure escaping from lions and tigers, spaceship headed for Mars, and so much more purely made up from the imaginations of whichever of us kids were wanting to play at any given time. The book taps into the wonderful imagination of youngsters with suggestions on how to create settings and inspire creativity quickly and cheaply, with the emphasis on imagination as the main ingredient. Love it!
S. H. –
Our whole family loves this!
As a parent who strives to be as screen-free as possible, this book is a true inspiration. Pretend Play Workshop for Kids is a very thoughtful set of activities for encouraging imaginative play for young children. Utilizing just a few key pieces like wooden crates, cardboard boxes, and common household items, a parent can help their child create different play structures to support their creativity. For example, the crates can be stacked to become an ice cream counter, a train, or the desk in a detective office. Suggestions for building accessories to supplement play and themed activities are also included. I love this for our home, which has limited storage, because we don’t have room to have a wooden play kitchen, child-sized train, play doctor’s office with toy medical supplies, and register/counter for a play store all set up in our child’s room. But this encourages reuse and building the toys as needed, which really makes it personal and fun.
Megan Cusack –
Fun
We recently pulled our 4 year old from daycare due to the crazy high costs. But as an “older” mom, sometimes I find it difficult to come up with good imaginary play ideas. This book has some great ideas! It tells you and shows you what you need. You can set it up the night before and be ready to go with your little ones. Most activities can be stretched over multiple days. I plan on doing one activity a week at least. Most of them include things you already most likely have around the house. You can make them as simple or as intricate as you feel like. This book is a great gift for any parent or grandparent or babysitter etc. So fun, creative, and fairly simple. SO glad I ordered this! 10/10 would recommend!
Eloise –
Playscapes can be tailored to your time and materials
This book has a section for each of 12 playscapes. Using easy to source materials and often items you have at home you can create a playscape or vignette for pretend play. I read this as something a grownup would set up for a younger child. They might have fun doing some of the crafting, but I think they will enjoy playing in the playscape even more. You can decide how involved you want to make the scene based on your time and materials. There are some creative and original ideas to make the pretend play more interesting and detailed. I like that it is not expensive to follow along and create a fun space so you could easily change things up to keep little ones engaged.