India is at that amazing age where her little (read massive) personality is starting to blossom. Her fingers are ever pointing, her eyes ever inquisitive, her excitement and energy knows no bounds and she is just desperate to play, play, play.
I'm lucky enough to be able to be at home with her full time and watch her potter about, her imagination taking her to wherever she decides to land.
At the moment her big thing is playing mummies and homes. We brought her a little cooker set from Djeco for her 2nd birthday, filled it with lots of fabric play food and off she went making meals for anyone who sat down at her table (wonder where she gets that from?!). She is in her element playing 'being mummy' where she pushes around a baby in her pram sipping at her juice cup or an old take-out cup i've left lying around! She bumbles about the garden with my pegs pretending to hang out the washing and she sweeps the decking down with our gigantic sweeping brush. I wish our garden was big enough to accommodate one of these amazing wendy houses (the crooked cottage is super cute) because India would go bonkers for it.
I remember reading about the importance of pretend play when Dexter was around a similar age and it still sits with me today as I see India learning all the same things that he and then shortly after him, Florence did.
The importance of pretend play really is huge. Through pretend play, children build skills in many important development areas such as language skills, thinking skills and both social & emotional skills. When you nurture a child's imagination through play you are helping to set them up to (amongst other things) be confident, independent thinkers with the ability to thrive socially. They learn how to act in different situations and through imaginative role play, they gain a natural understanding of when certain behaviour is sometimes more appropriate than an other.
India is bursting with fun at the moment and it's really interesting (& exciting) to know that all that fun, laughter and sparky imagination is building the person she will eventually become.
This age is so great. I love it, and I'm clinging on to it with both hands as i know how quickly this time flies.
This post is in association with www.playhouses.co.uk. All words my own.
LOVE! Wilf is only now saying some words but I cant not WAIT for him to come out with some crackers like these :) xx
ReplyDelete