Games for Kids to Play

As a parent, I want to let my children explore their creativity as often as possible while at the same time avoiding a big mess. That is why we have such things in our house as dress up clothes and cooking sets - they let them experience adult activities without making a mess (at least in theory).

Over the years we have amassed quite a collection of clothes for them to play dress up games. Quite often our children will go downstairs and play house, or go to work, or pretend that they are going trick or treating. They can spend hours wearing different combinations of clothes and they just love it.

But with this creativity, they are also getting valuable feedback as to what is a good outfit to wear in public and what doesn't quite work out. For example, when my daughter came upstairs one day wearing a dress, winter boots and a goblin mask on her face, we had to tell her that she couldn't go outside looking like that (while trying to hide our smiles).

Needless to say, I would encourage you to let your child play dress up games as they are invaluable in the learning process your child must go through as they grow up into adulthood.

One of the best things that we have done for our children is introduce them to the concept of cooking. By having the interest in learning how to cook, they will want to learn the skills that they will eventually need when they move out of the home.

In order to accomplish this, we encourage the kids to play cooking games in their play kitchen and on the computer to understand how things can go together to make a meal. Not only does this method of learning keep us from having a big disaster in the kitchen, but it also allows them to get feedback on their ideas.

I really do admire their creativity when it comes to having completed meals for us to eat. I can remember having such things as broccoli sandwiches, spaghetti on toast, and even a nice glass of onion juice. Thankfully, we don't have to try some of these creations in real life, but we let them know if it would be good or not.

We have even let our boy play in our play kitchen as it is important for him to want to learn about cooking as well. In fact, when the cousins are over, it can be really fun to watch them all sit down in their dress up clothes and share a wonderful meal that they all created.