[dharmama]

Can anyone help me brainstorm this situation a bit??<br><br>
My 3.5 year old DD LOVES to play "pretend". We are not media-free (though we are working on decreasing it) so some of her pretend play involves characters from books/videos. Much of it also comes from her mind or stories she has learned at her preschool.<br><br>
Her imagination is amazing and I want to encourage it as much as possible but I really don't like playing doctor's office, or school, or I'm the mama bird and your the baby bird for more than a few minutes at a time. <img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="http://www.mothering.com/discussions/images/smilies/redface.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="Embarrassment"><br><br>
I've been increasing our playdates and finding activities that I DO love doing with her (crafts, reading, exploring the beach, writing in our journals, cooking, baking) and I have been trying to find a few moments each day where I can get myself into the spirit of pretend play and really enjoy it with her.<br><br>
So things are improving.<br><br>
But...now that I am playing a bit more with her I'm noticing that it is really hard to shift out of pretend play. Like today we played I'm the papa bird and she's the mama bird and we have to sit on our eggs (wooden figures on a silk) and then the birds hatched and we had to find worms (she grabbed pine cones as worms) to feed them.<br><br>
It was fun and I enjoyed playing with her...for a while. Then I wanted to get back to doing my stuff...tidying up, doing laundry etc.<br><br>
But I just don't know a smooth way to transition from being the papa bird to being plain old mama again. Sometimes I forget (or get frustrated) and I "break character" and say something like...."Let's clean up now Lily" and she gets FURIOUS with me because she's NOT Lily, she's mama bird (or whatever).<br><br>
How is it done in the classroom? Or how do kids do it among themselves I wonder? Maybe next time DD has a friend over to play I'll have to listen and see how they transition from one pretend scene to the next and back to reality again. I'll also have to talk to her teachers and see if they have any suggestions.<br><br>
Anyway...kind of rambling. Just wondering if anyone has any ideas for me!<br><br>
Thanks!<br><br>
~Erin

 

[kibba]

As a former preschool teacher we used to give warnings like " five more minutes and we're going to start cleaning up" or "after I'm done doing X (cleaning lunch up) we're going to stop playing and clean up so we can go outside. I'm not sure if it's waldorfy but I know I support more of them playing on their own then playing with them, so it's hard for me to give anything that will really help your situation.... :| Maybe turn it into play, like okay lets clean up our bird nests now. I know sometimes to get kids to clean I would say, how about you find all of the red cars and I will find the blue, or I would turn on clean up music. Clean up is hard for most kids I know.... good luck!!

 

[zansmama]

Oh, ds has gone for days at a time being "Robin Hood" or "Cherry Fairy" or whatever...<br>
I just call him whatever he wants: that bit doesn't bother me.<br>
But the "me playing endlessly" bit: not so fun. I just give him a plan , like: "First I'll play birds with you, but just for a little bit, because then I will need to go clean the dishes", and then stick to it.<br>
But I don't mind if he wants to call me "mama bird" all day, just as long as I can still get things done.<br>
Also, I'm not sure if kids (at least ds) really transition between reality/fantasy... it all sort of flows together, i think... I'm not sure how to explain what I mean: help, anyone?

 

[Hannahsmummy]

I hear ya! It's actually driving me a bit insane at the moment. <img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="http://www.mothering.com/discussions/images/smilies/winky.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="Wink"><br><br>
My daughter's most heard expression is...<br>
"Mummy let's be..." It could be anything at all in any situation. If tell her that you will play after finishing some task or whatever, she tries to incorporate the play into your activity. For example tonight I was making dinner and she said "Mummy, let's be doctor cats!"<br>
I said that I could do that in a little bit but that right now I was making dinner, she was asked if she'd like to help but she didn't want to.<br>
So, that led to "OK then, let's be dinner making cats!"<br><br>
Like yourself, I adore the imagination and will no doubt be sad and fell a loss when she doesn't want me to do it anymore but it is hard on a constant basis.<br><br>
One good thing that I have learned is that my daughter is quite happy role playing in any situation. I don't even have to be physically participating as long as I am talking to her as my character. So, it's definitely helped to play around what I am doing and make that a part of the game. This way we both get what we want.<br><br>
Though, it's gotten to where she won't take her breakfast until I've asked all the other "passengers" if they'd like a meal first and brought around her bowl for all of them to see. "hello, would you like a meal? Would YOU like a meal?" <img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="/img/vbsmilies/smilies/eyesroll.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="roll"> What can I say, she's been on a lot of airplanes.

 

[Mama2E&O]

This is a tough one!<br>
Often when my kid are playing one gets tired of it after a while and leaves the game- and if the other one isn't ready to finish the game it can be very emotional and distressing! I very often have one coming to me crying and saying: "Mama, O left and says he doesn't want to be the farmer anymore!" or "E says she isn't the cow anymore!" And I'll go find E happily drawing, having completely abandoned their game.<br>
If I am playing with them (which I rarely do anymore, now that they play so much together) I will often transition by saying: "Okay, now the mama fox has to go and make lunch. . ." or sometimes I'll go as far as to say: "Okay, now the mama fox has to turn back into real mama."<br>
Usually they are fine with that.