Playing Dressup

My girls absolutely love to dress up and put on jewelery and play make up and I have always given them that opportunity and supported their magnificent imaginations. They have tons of dress up clothes and accessories from halloween costumes to animals to pioneer dresses and hats. I have always believed that dressing up and pretending to be someone else teaches children about the different roles people play and what things we do while in those roles. Such as dressing up as a casheir they count money and put groceries in bags or when they dress up as a ballerina they twril around and do flips, or when they dress up as a mommy they take care of their baby and do all the things a mommy does. This is very important in their life role playing and using their imagination teaches them so much about not only who they are as individuals and what their values and beliefs are but it teaches them that others do not have the same values and beliefs that we do and we should respect their values and beliefs because we would want ours to be valued by others. I love seeing my girls play different roles while they are playing dress up they love being different people and it is changing all the time one minute they are Cinderella and the next they are playing cops and bad guys or indians and cowboys. This Unscholling life has taught me so much about how this so called play is actually learning at it's best. I ahve began to see how much they are actually learning from dressing up as different people. I will always encourage their love for playing dress up and I will give them new opportunities to use their imagination by providing new dress up clothes and accesories.