Pretend Play Toys – The Best Home Corner Setup
Home corners are a valuable tool for young children’s development as they provide opportunities for imaginative play, language development, social skills building, and independent learning. Children can role play and act out different scenarios, such as cooking and caring for others, which can foster their imaginations and creativity. They can also practice speaking, listening, and storytelling, which can support their language development. Through playing with others in the home corner, children can learn how to interact with others, take turns, and share, while also building self-confidence and independence.
Playing with a home corner can help children in various ways, including:
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Developing Social Skills: Children can role play and act out different scenarios, such as cooking and serving food, which can help them learn how to interact with others. Social skills are so important and allow your child to interact with others in a socially accepted way. Taking turns, active listening, asking questions, showing patience and empathy are all skills your child will learn when they play with in a home corner.
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Improving Imagination and Creativity: A home corner provides an opportunity for children to use their imaginations and be creative as they create different scenarios and stories. Maybe their little one is sick, how do they care for their doll? Watch as they stand at the kitchen and act like their parents while they ‘cook’.
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Enhancing Language Development: Playing with a home corner can also support children’s language development as they practice speaking and listening. Home corners are at their essence social and pretend play toys. Encourage them to talk, sing and dance!
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Understanding and Exploring the World Around Them: Children can learn about different aspects of life, such as cooking, cleaning, and taking care of little ones, which can help them understand and explore the world around them. It will help them feel secure when they are performing these tasks in real life – who knows, maybe they will start to clean their room!
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Building Self-Confidence and Independence: As children play and take on different roles, they can build self-confidence and develop a sense of independence. This will allow them to take on challenges with belief in themselves.
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Variety of The Situations: A home corner can be set up in different ways, allowing children to play and explore new scenarios and ideas. A home corner could be a kitchen, café, bedroom, childcare or any other scene you would like your child to explore.
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Age-Appropriate Learning: Home corners are designed for young children and typically include child-sized furniture and accessories that are safe and easy for them to use. Let them play in a safe environment where they are free to explore and let curiosity drive their learning.
When you are setting up a home corner for your child have a think about what they enjoy doing around your home. Do they help when you are loading the washing machine or dishwasher? Then maybe start with that! Do they love taking care of their dolls? How about a doll pram, bed or high chair then so they can create their own space.
Here are our top tips to help make sure you create the best home corner experience for your child.
- Expand on your childs interests rather than pushing them to play with the set up YOU would like.
- Add new pieces to encourage fresh play situations. This could be adding a cash register to turn your kitchen into a cafe, or new food to encourage healthy eating.
- Let it be a safe space – don’t tell your child they are doing things wrong (unless it’s dangerous, inappropriate or rude). It’s play time. Let it be fun.
- Get involved. Watch how your child will light up when you get involved in their play time. Spend quality time with them – they are only little for such a short amount of time – enjoy it!
