July 5, 2010

Mommy and Me Monday

Mommy and Me Monday is our weekly trips around town or activities in the home, where once a week I take a few hours out of the day to really focus on the kids, take a breather from chores and responsibility and hang with the ones who matter the most- my kids.

This week for our Mommy and Me Monday we are at home, playing dress up!  We have recently inherited a mound of awesome dress up stuff- thanks to my niece Elyse and my Grandma Jo.  Emily is definitely in the 'obsessed with dress up' stage- playing princess, fairy, horse, frog, whatever.  She is happy in her pretend land.  Normally, she just changes and prances around for me to adore, but today I decided Will and I will join in on the fun.

Playing dress up is so important for kids developmentally, so it's a great to encourage it.  Dress up teaches self confidence and a good self esteem.  As they become proud of what they are wearing and find themselves able to pretend to do anything.  They learn they are beautiful or strong depending on the dress up outfit.  Dress up also encourages good social skills- sharing for instance.  When friends play dress up together, sharing is fun.  Kids interact easier together.  It is easier to be less shy and more outgoing in a different outfit, as someone else. 

Kids can learn empathy from dress up also, as they learn about being in someone's shoes and can learn to pretend to feel like someone else.  Kids at this age are all about themselves, egocentric.  It's normal and a developmental stage that they had to go through.  But as they grow older thinking about others creates a nicer and happier child.

A more obvious benefit is creativity.  Kids learn to be creative with their dress up, creating new outfits and personalities.  Creativity helps build better problem solving and critical thinking.  This in turn helps build independence.

Kids who play dress up also explore different parts of their personality, from girly girl to smart doctor to brave fire fighter, they see they can be many different things.  This will continue in real life as they decide which parts of all their dress up personalities fit in their day to day life.

So for us, we see the great benefits of dress up and will encourage it as long as they love it.  Even if it gets me in silly wigs and looking goofy.  My kids will hopefully grow up to be smart and creative and confident.  Because while they may just be pretending to be anybody, I want them to be able to be anybody they want. 

1 comment:

  1. So glad you all are enjoying the dress-up clothes. Elyse loves the pictures.

    ReplyDelete

LinkWithin

Related Posts with Thumbnails
 
© 2010 Laura Jane Designs
Elements by Jennifer Fox