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Childen love playing dress-up. Dressing up helps children practise self-care skills related to dressing, encourages thinking about the community and stimulates fantasy play. Fantasy play is particularly beneficial for the imagination if children write their own play scripts as they go along rather than enacting a story. This can be encouraged by providing generic costumes rather than or as well as licensed ones. As the dress-up options for small girls seem to be somewhat limited in modern culture, there’s a list of suggestions that get out of the sparkly princess and fairy rut – and boys might like some of these.
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Firstly, the children playing with the items
in there get to practise some of their self-
care skills (something we’re right into
with Montessori education) as they put the
items on: doing up buttons, getting clothes
round the right way and all the rest of it.
Secondly, playing with dress-up clothes
encourages fantasy play, which is
excellent for stimulating creative thinking
and the imagination.
Experts say that fantasy play is most
beneficial if children write their own
“scripts” for the stories they act out in
their play rather than following a script
dictated by a book, movie or a TV show.
Children will re-enact what they’ve heard
or seen, of course. They’ve been doing this
long before TV was invented, so it would
be wrong to blame this medium for
scripted fantasy play.
But your children are more likely to go for
unscripted play (i.e. writing their own
scripts) if the dress up items are more
generic rather than associated with a
certain character.
This doesn’t mean that you should ban all
Spiderman and Snow White costumes as a
way of encouraging unscripted play.
They have their place, as long as they don’t
dominate. And a child who has a mental
diet of a range of things (books, good TV
shows and movies) will take their
characters into new situations.
The American feminist writer and mother
Peggy Orenstein wrote a very enlightening
and sometimes funny book entitled
“Cinderalla Ate My Daughter”
She highlights the way the emphasis on
princesses, especially of the Disney sort,
programmes little girls into a lifestyle of
obsessing about looks and consumerism.
This book highlights the fact that when it
comes to costumes and dressing-up
options for girls in particular, the options
seem to be rather limited to fairies,
princesses and fairy princesses, with the
odd mermaid (probably a princess as
well).
It would probably be helpful for your
child, whether male or female, to provide
dress-up items that aren’t gender-limiting.
This isn’t to say that you should ban
princess gear – everybody likes a bit of
sparkly bling and a tiara or so now and
again. But you should have other options
available.
More interesting articles about children
learning and Montessori Learning
Activities at
www.fridayschildmontessori.com