Playing house

There are a few ways to play house. You can play with a small house like a Fisher-Price house and people. Your playhouse may have rooms with little furniture and people. You can use the people to act out regular daily things, sit down and eat, go to sleep, go take a bath or potty. I use my little house with the bathroom and potty when my kiddos are potty training. I take the people and while "they're" doing whatever, they will stop to go potty. I will say "Oh no, I have to potty." and make them go sit on the potty. Then they always wash their hands when they're done. I use my little people to act out the things they're supposed to do, ask for a snack, stop to go potty and go to bed. It's a good time to work on the skills you want them to use. If there is a troubling area you can use the people to act it out. For older kids you can have the person do the troubling act, like bullying may be, and have the child use their person for what they should say/do. You can use everyday words and focus on things that use their speech sounds.

With the kid-size kitchen, you can work on naming foods, pretending to cook and eat. You can take care of the baby, feed the baby, put the baby to sleep. You can use real food boxes in your pretend kitchen, empty of course. Use their favorite cereal or snack boxes, they can practice asking for the foods they like. If you have a little table they can practice sitting nicely to eat, make the baby sit nice to eat too. It can be a good time to introduce them to new foods, even if it's pretend foods.

You can bring in other things like playdough to roll out and make cookies or cakes in your kitchen. My little niece made her daddy a birthday cake, sang "Happy Birthday" most of it, and told him "Blow it up". It will now be the joke at every birthday party. Her imagination at 2 is wild.

You can use felt or paper to make pretend cookies and icing with drawn on sprinkles. You can use the icing to work on colors. Here is a little cookie printable with the cookies and then some sprinkled frosting to put on them. You can count them or pretend bake them. Use dried pasta to pretend to cook it or beans. I know I can find both things in my sensory bins.

You can also use them for following directions, whether you're using playdough, felt, or paper for your cookies. You can do steps for it.

1) We roll out the playdough.

2) We cut the cookies.

3) We put them on the baking sheet.

4) We put them in the oven to cook.

5) Wait, wait, wait for them to cook. (count to 5) "ding"

6) We take them out. "Oh it's hot"

Parents can give them playdough or felt/paper cookies, to play baking with while they make real cookies. While the cookies really bake, they can play with the pretend cookies or help wash the dishes for some water sensory fun. There is a small play sink that you fill the bottom with water and the faucet will work. They can wash their dishes while Mom and Dad wash the real dishes. I don't have the play sink but I've co-treated with therapists that do. It's always fun.

There are play cleaning items like broom, mop, dustpan, duster, vacuum. Get them started early it won't last forever. My son used to love to dust the whole house with the Swiffer. Now it's almost impossible to get him to pick up his own room. When Mom and Dad have to clean, the kid can help clean up too. Sing the cleanup song, it's usually a favorite. If they happen to make a mess, they can sweep up their cheerios. Especially those kids that may find it funny to throw food when they're done eating. You can tell them, "Oh we use our words. Are you all done? Now we have to clean up the cheerios on the floor. Sweep, sweep." My sister-in-law has sent me the cutest videos of my nieces cleaning up after their messes. When asked what she was doing, my little niece said "Clean up my milk. I mad." She got mad about not getting more of something until she finished the other food on her plate and spilled her cup on the floor.

Making some real food can be fun too. Roll of sugar cookies or pizzas. Play knives can be fun to cut bananas or apples without the peel. You can work on language like "peel, cut, eat". Letting picking eaters play with their food first before trying to get them to eat it can make them more willing to try it. They can explore it and become familiar with it. Adventures in Veggieland is a good book for ideas to explore foods. It has helped a couple of picky eaters that I didn't have on my caseload but were actually siblings of a kid on my caseload. I'm so glad I discovered this book and I bet you'll like it as well.

The things you can do to play house are endless. Even if there is no little dollhouse or play kitchen. The everyday items in any home can lend itself to pretend play and learning. Helping Mom and Dad clean or fold laundry can be a learning experience it just depends on how you look at it.

I hope everyone has fun with pretend play and playing house. Try new things and get out of your comfort zone.