Learning Through Dress Up

When I was growing up, one of my friends had a dress up trunk which I thought was the coolest thing. There were old lady wigs, long dresses, high heel shoes, gaudy beads, and big clip on earrings. I wanted my own children to experience the dress up fun I had as a child so I set out to stock a dress up bin for them. Their bin is full of old Halloween costumes, hats, dresses, funky clothing, purses, beads, and lots of other stuff. Both Jacob and Rosa enjoy dressing up as different characters and then acting out whoever that character is. Some of the characters they enjoy dressing up as include a chef, king, queen, princess, knight, pirate, tiger, lion, ballerina, fireman, etc. I love how dressing up really sparks their imagination.

There are many inexpensive resources for dress up clothes. Goodwill, Salvation Army, or any other second hand store is a great place to find stuff. Large pieces of cloth cut into 4 foot by 4 foot squares make wonderful capes. Jacob's favorite cape is a square cut from my husband's old purple graduation gown. This gown had been saved by my husband's grandparents who he lived with at the time and it was returned to him a few years ago. The purple cape has been around for a couple of years and it is the item most frequently used in the dress up bin. My son likes to secure the cape in front with a small to medium size binder clip or small chip clip. My clips are always disappearing around the house and Rosa will come to me with her pink cape searching for some type of clip to secure it with. I like having the kids use clips because they come off quite easily so the cape does not pose a choking hazard if it gets caught on something. I really need to go out and buy a big box of binder clips because we can never seem to find a clip when we need one.