Time to Make Believe

The blogging prompt from Social Moms made me think about writing this post. What is my favorite part of the day with my child/family? I work for a multinational company, and my working hours are usually around 9am to 7pm. On weekdays, the only downtime I really have to spend with my family is after dinner, just before my 2 year old goes to bed. On holidays or weekends - we also get to spend a little more time in the morning, and again just before nap time. However, it is really before bedtime where we are consistently able to spend quality time together, and it is best spent make believing! This is my favorite time of the day - the time when we make believe as a family.

Thanks to my husband who is the creative soul in this marriage - he is able to bring out the imaginative side out of our daughter. At an early age, I noticed she loved playing make believe with dolls, cooking sets and doctor sets. Their play includes setting up pillows to make houses for K, walking around the room with baskets "shopping", or cooking up a storm with K's cooking set. I don't need to really be part of it to enjoy it - just watching them together makes me smile.

Staging a makeshift puppet show

I, on the other hand, prefer reading books and stories to my daughter. To bring out the "make believe" in it - I dreamt up this idea to set up small puppet shows for K using her stuffed toys. The puppet shows were a big hit! She's taken to pretending she's Little Red Riding Hood... and when her father pretends to be the big bad wolf, she answers "No, no, no... not by the hair of my chinny chin chinny...!"

Make believe time is part play, part learning for us. Now that my daughter is a lot more verbal - I can see how she has been learning from our make believe time. It's a great mix of fun and learning!