2 July 2010

Using pretend play at home

Posted by DAVID BC TAN under: Play; Preschool.

Homeschooling mom DJ shares  how she uses pretend play to teach Mandarin at home.  She wrote this on her blog:

“So last night, I decided to plan my own lesson plan. I wanted it to be fun. I took out one of the books I bought sometime ago called Literacy Play (under Language). I like the book because it uses pretend play (or dramatic play) to teach kids vocabulary. I think it is rather fun way to play.”

DJ goes on to write about the fun they all had pretending to be customer and hairdresser.

“Then I make a price list and a appointment time table for her. I also downloaded some clip art from the net, so that we can make name card.

“I also explained what is a hairdresser and what does she do, etc. After that, I took out the price list and we discussed about how much we should charged for each item. Den wrote down the price. Then I introduced the appointment time table. She wanted to open her shop from 10am-10pm because she has no husband and baby yet. I let her wrote down the time on the time table.”

Pretend play is a great way to engage young learners!  And as DJ has shown you can pick your ideas from anywhere and then adapt them – including language – to make learning fun.

Drop in at DJ’s blog My Journal, A Homeschooling Mom to read the rest of this story and pick up more tips from her older posts here.

Thanks DJ for sharing, and thanks also for letting me post your story here!

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