Wild imaginations, play-acting

I'm not concerned or anything, I just don't know if other children their age do this as much as they do. A&B are always pretending their "friends" (stuffed animals) are characters from books or TV shows, or other kids they know, family members, or they make them into families. Then the friends re-enact things from a book, show, or events that happened in their life. Like the other day my cousin and her two-year old and 4 month old were over, and we had a blanket on the grass for the baby to play on. Then at naptime, A&B put a blanket on the floor, with one friend being the baby, lying in the middle, and other friends were the rest of us around the blanket, and they had us sitting on pillows to act as chairs. The end of our hallway is "Auntie Alice's House" from Miffy, we just call it that now. They always take washcloths orany little blanket and wrap it around a friend to be a dress, a towel because they just got out of the pool, a robe, a cape. They put friends to bed, and tell them to be quiet and no screaming.

It's all very cute, I just didn't know if other kids do this so much.

 

Yes, our girls are very much the same. Constantly pretending - it gets much more entertaining, trust me.

 

I remember feeling the same way when my children were little. It felt like almost everything was imaginative. I shared this on a message board and was basically told that my 'concern' and my desire to even bring it up as a potential 'issue' (just can't think of the right words) was pretty much stupid. Made me feel real good! Anyway, it has decreased over the years and I think it was a perfectly normal phase, I just wish people didn't think I was a lunatic for wanting to talk about it (no, I am not at all saying you are a lunatic, just one of those things when I had no idea I was starting a thread that would get heated).

 

Ben does, Hannah does not. I was actually concerned that Hannah was not pretending enough, so it is funny to read a post from the opposite perspective.

 

Absolutely, only not as sophisticated as your guys as our two are younger. They started before 18 months putting their teddies to bed and covering them with my drying up cloths.

I'm certainly not worried about it, I think it's wonderful - and it entertains me almost as much as it entertains them! Most children pass through imaginative play as a phase (which can continue a long long time), but the fact that it's more prominent/earlier/sophisticated in twins may be because it's more fun to play imaginative games with someone else. Also maybe because they see me for example changing their sister's nappy so they also 'change' teddy's 'nappy' and ask him to lie still. They get an earlier sense of 'other'.

Even with my professional hat on (a clinical psychologist), I still think it's a good thing. For example one of the foremost psychologists of the 20th century stated: "Imaginative play is a precursor of conceptual thought – in which possibilities are explored upon the inner 'stage' of a child's imagination." (Erik Ericson).

Enjoy it while it lasts!
lisa

 

I just wanted to add that as they get older and start to use sentences and words even more that you should listen in every now and then. They tend to incorporate their real lives into the play. At least mine do. It's how I found out that a particular child at daycare was being quite abusive physically with the other kids. The daycare director was shocked when I approached her about it. They were playing with their dollhouse and I heard "No, [kid]! No hitting! Stop pushing, [kid]!" over and over.

Of course it won't all be bad but you will get some good insight into their relationships with other people. I can tell from listening to them that they love their nanny and having their nanny's daughter here. That they are very protective of their brother. That my Mom tells them some pretty silly stuff. Some of this stuff they tell me but it's fun to hear them play it out. And when they pretend they are the nanny, I get an idea of how she reacts to various situations when I'm not here.

 

It is so fun to watch.

We were once at a play day and the 4 kids (all 4 and under) started playing a game about a monster. It was so funny watching 4 kids run together around a yard, and work together to "get away" from this imaginary monster.

 

My girls do the same thing....reenact events of the day before, TV, books with the princess figurnes, stuffed animals and dolls.

They learn and explore relationships that way. It is wonderful to watch and see thier 'perspective' of life!

Enjoy it!

 

So cute! I love reading posts like this to get a glimpse into our future. The girls are only recently started pretending, but its all very concrete right now... they 'pretend' to drink out of a big mug I let them play with, they 'pretend' to brush their dolls' hair with their actual brush. I can't wait until they pretend more elaborate stuff! I remember as a kid turning my entire bedroom into a barbie town and playing for hours in there. Looking back all I had was my actual bedroom furniture and some shoe boxes, but to me it was a real complex town! Enjoy and take some video Kelly!

 

QUOTE(Jennie-OH @ Jul 9 2008, 07:46 AM) [snapback]867244[/snapback]
I just wanted to add that as they get older and start to use sentences and words even more that you should listen in every now and then. They tend to incorporate their real lives into the play. At least mine do. It's how I found out that a particular child at daycare was being quite abusive physically with the other kids. The daycare director was shocked when I approached her about it. They were playing with their dollhouse and I heard "No, [kid]! No hitting! Stop pushing, [kid]!" over and over.

Of course it won't all be bad but you will get some good insight into their relationships with other people. I can tell from listening to them that they love their nanny and having their nanny's daughter here. That they are very protective of their brother. That my Mom tells them some pretty silly stuff. Some of this stuff they tell me but it's fun to hear them play it out. And when they pretend they are the nanny, I get an idea of how she reacts to various situations when I'm not here.

Yes, they do a lot of the same things! I learn what happened at preschool or when my mom was watching them through their play-acting

Also wanted to mention, we read a lot of books to them, and they watch this show called "Miffy" in which the narrator speaks like she is reading the story, i.e. "Oh!", Miffy shouted, "I lost my ball!" and Bea will play-act speaking like this too. It's really cute to hear.

 

[SIZE=12pt]Hi Kelly,

Wow the girls have great imaginations! The more imagination and play acting they have, the smarter they are! My twins do this all of the time. They mostly like to pretend they are dogs and crawl into the dog cage or curl up in the dog's bed. They do a lot of acting like they are Nemo and Dory from the movie Finding Nemo.

They also have great conversations and pretend they are the Backyardigans or Caillou. I think that is great that your girls are so CREATIVE!

Bridget[/SIZE]

 

Mine are starting to more and more, it is so cute to watch them. Yesterday I had their laundry out, so they became Super Heros with their bath towels. They just gave up their binkys and Madison told our sitter "the puppies took them far, far away." I'm not sure where that came from.