Fun Pretend Play Games with 5 Common Kids Toys

Strengthen and advance your child's emotional and intellectual skills by playing games and activities with pretend kids toys! Nothing stimulates your child more than learning games and playing pretend with someone else engaged with them. Because as we know, parents tend to get lots of toys and encourage their children to play by themselves, so they can get things done around the house. But these fantastic pretend toys can also be used in group activities that can be fun for everyone! Delve into the domain of make believe with your little one and play games that will give him a leg up in learning and maturation.

Lemonade Stand Theater

The always popular Alex Toys has an amazing lemonade stand for children of all ages. A lemonade stand will teach your child important skills and lessons such as: entrepreneurship and the value of money. But clear out the lemonade and you have a mobile puppet theater! You and your child can make your own puppets from socks or puppet crafts and take turns acting your own play. Write the name of your performance and the time it starts on the chalk board in front and serve popcorn and drinks to the audience. Everyone will get a kick out of the funny stories that each participant makes up!

Rocket Ship Eye Spy

The rocket ship, from KidKraft, is a bundle of fun all on its own, but with so many shapes and colors decorated on its frame and fusel lodge you and your child will have a blast using it as a new and improved eye spy game. Describe something on the rocket ship and have your child guess what you're describing. Place toy astronauts around the rocket ship's interior and take the game up a notch and call out the color and shape of your "spy" and let your child try to guess which one it is. You can also call out eye spy sections of the ship to enhance deduction skills by analyzing the rooms to notice what each section is for.

Orchard Farm Go Seek

Le Toy Van offers an Orchard Farm set that is an adorable old fashioned farm with animals and farmers on a barn and barnyard setting. Using this pretend farm or any other, you can do two different variations to hide and go seek with the fun farm characters! Begin with the whole set and have your child identify which animal goes "moo" or "quack quack" going through each animal sound until he learns all of them. Another game is to take one of the farm animals and hide it on the farm, either within or out and encourage your child to search for the animal. When he finds it have him make the animal sound. Then he can hide one and you go on a hunt. For one more fun game, you can blind fold your child and place all of the farm animal figurines on the floor. Have him pick one up, feel it, and try to tell you which one it is. If he's right, put it in the "correct" pile, if he's wrong, put it in the "wrong" pile. Continue this guess game until he's gone through them all, then remove the blindfold and show him how he did by revealing the "yes" and "no" scores.

Workshop Mr. Fix It

All children love to be able to help their mom or dad in some way. When my daughter got her first tool set she wanted to be just like dad and fix things, so I let her. Here's how you can encourage your little fixer to have fun while making your home a better place. Walk around the house and look for things that are broken like, loose handles on drawers, stuck drains, crooked pictures, screws that need some tightening etc… When you find something that needs altering, write it on a to-do list and write which room it's in. Then send your little fixer off to get the job done. You'll be amazed at how confident your child will feel after a hard day's work and your house will get a handy makeover.

Shanghaied Scavenger Hunt

The captain and crew of the Le Toy Van Shanghai Warrior ship have been captured and the only way to get them back is to go on a scavenger hunt adventure! Your hero princess or little pirate will love playing this game! Hide each member of the crew somewhere in the yard or house while leaving a clue to the next member's where-a-bouts with each figurine. Save the captain as the last one and bury or hide a treasure of animal crackers, cookies or any treat for the weary hero to discover with him as your child's reward for a job well done.