Why we love pretend play

I always love watching Adam play, but my favourite is when he engages in pretend play. See the pic above, what does it look like to you? A mess? Well let me break it down for you:

The chair, makes a home. The quilt, just makes it cozy probably :) oh and he folds up the end to make 'the door'. The red train? well that's Gary the snail, of course. The striped gloves is Gary's bed, the sock is Gary's slide and the cheese and bread? well those are Gary's lunch naturally.

This is how the story unfolds;

Adam: Mommy come here, look, Sekaya House.

Mommy: Oh, is that a squirrel house? nice! Where's the squirrel?

Adam: No, no Mommy..no sekaya...this, Gary the snail. *points to the train*

oh I see...so it's a squirrel house, for a snail.

He fusses about and here are some of the scenarios he made up:

sleeping

Adam: Mommy, sleeping time (meaning he's asking me to sing the sleeping time song)

Mommy: Ok, *singing* sleeping time..sleeping time..

Adam: Wait! here Gary snail..*gives me Gary*

Then he grabs another train, and tells me this is also a snail. then he proceeded to stroke the train ever so gently...

Adam: Ok Mommy, sleeping time.

He continues to stroke each of the 'snails' as I sing, and then put them to bed.

wake up

Adam: Mommy wake up Gary

Mommy: *sings the wake up song*

Adam turned up the snails and asked me to help. and when everybody's awake...

Adam: Ok....thank you..good job Mommy!

lunch

Adam: Gary snail...nounch (i.e lunch)

He proceeded to serve Gary his lunch. Of course Mommy and Mia gets some lunch too (Adam suap. Mia enjoys this part the most)

This wonderful pretend play goes on for over an hour, full of creative imaginative play. Ok, it may seem like just silly child's play...but there is so much more to it than we realise..

First of all, when he's pretending that the train is a snail, he is well aware that a train is a train, a snail is a snail. He does not actually believe that train is a snail, meaning that he is well aware of the fact that he is just pretending. He is giving a separate mental state to the snail (hungry, sleepy etc) meaning that he is acknowledging that other beings has feelings, a mental state different to his own. A child at this age, their world revolves around themselves, how they feel, what they need. For them to assign a separate mental state and desires to others requires advance thinking skills for a 2 year old. He is practising his social skills at the same time, in the way that the is communicating and being gentle to the snail. Also, he is putting the effort to portray his imagination to me, and include me in his very detailed pretend play.

Really, such complicated and and rather sophisticated thinking skills are being developed in what appears to be simple 'child's play'. I feel so amazed and honoured to have the front seat to witnessing such magic unfolds. Alhamdulillah..let's remember this the next time we feel too busy to play with our children...a reminder to myself really...