A child’s imagination is something to be encouraged and treasured. Young children learn many skills through imagination, from independent play, interactive play, language, and cognitive skills, to name a few. Pretend play and dress up are wonderful ways to let your child dream up and act out all kinds of fun adventures.

There is a wide variety of great toys available to enhance your imaginative experiences, some of which include; cooking and baking toys, dress up, gardening toys, household toys, money and banking games, spy toys, tools and puppets.

Your child probably watches you prepare and cook meals every day. There are many cooking and baking toys available that allow your child to have hours of entertainment. Some of the wonderful toys manufactured are; picnic baskets (complete with bread, cheese, lettuce, hot dog and bread, ketchup, corn on the cob, etc.), bakery sets, plastic food sets, a wide variety of teapot sets, pots and pans, sets dinnerware (complete with plates, utensils, bowls and mugs) and coffee sets. It’s easy for your child to set up their own little make-believe kitchen with ovens that actually bake cookies, mini-fridges that work, plastic coolers, microwaves, stoves, grills, and toasters. Small commercial markets complete with plastic items and cash registers can be purchased, along with gumball machines and sno-cone machines, the list is truly endless.

Dress up play is a favorite among kids of all ages, whether it’s dressing up in dad’s baseball uniform or having fun with mom’s wardrobe. There is a wide variety of all kinds of costumes, masks and accessories for children to choose from. The costumes come in designs such as firefighter and police uniforms, doctor and vet uniforms, engineer costumes, magic hats with capes and gloves, dresses, waitress costumes, cherubs, devils, witches, dancers and popular characters with capes and muscular among others. few. Great accessories can be found like crowns, tiara sets, ninja swords, lightsabers, cowboy hats, wallets complete with keys and cell phones, medical kits, and magic kits. Dress-up play allows your child to use her imagination in a fun way through role-play and acting out adventures.

For all young outdoor landscaping enthusiasts there are wonderful gardening tools and accessories available. The small wheelbarrows are made in both plastic and metal designs (the tiny metal designs look and work just as well as their adult counterparts), both of which are useful for removing dirt, weeds, and gravel in the garden. Metal and plastic gardening buckets, watering cans, mini gardening sets (complete with mini rake, shovel and trowels), gardening aprons, gardening bags with seeds (mini rake, shovel, trowel and bucket), gardening rakes, shovels and gardening gloves can also be purchased. Other adorable gardening sets include pots, seeds, and little fairy huts ready to plant.

Probably the only time your child will enjoy cleaning is when they are young. Most children seem to like helping mom or dad with cleaning and light housework. With that said, you will find plenty of household toys to keep your child busy and entertained for hours on end. Vacuum cleaners, cleaning kits (complete with brooms, mops, gloves, and buckets), talking irons and ironing boards, working sewing machines, and clothes washers are some of the items that can be found.

An encouraging and fun way to help children understand how money works early on is to have them play with money and banking toys and games. There are a variety of cash registers available complete with play money, fake credit cards, price scanners, price verification microphones, and readers that offer learning opportunities for various motor, math, and cognitive skills.

There are more spy device toys available today than ever before. There are spy detectors (which allow children to listen in other rooms or use them as stethoscopes), detective games, mini transmitter keyboards that allow children to send text messages to each other, spy glasses, motion detector games with sensors infrared, spy cameras available in sunglasses or wristband styles (with real film) and walkie talkies. Spy pens come with a variety of options, from motion activated alarms, flashlights, and magnifying glasses. Not only do these toys provide hours of entertainment, but toys like motion detectors and infrared sensors teach kids basic electronic skills.

Kids love to do things around the house just like mom or dad, especially anything that has to do with tools. Complete tool sets for kids are available with tool belts, tool chests, and tool boxes. You can find any tool imaginable from saws, levels, brushes, wrenches, screwdrivers, drills and hammers. Workshops (with bins to store tools) with workhorses and workbenches can provide the foundation for all of your child’s building adventures. And for when your child ventures outside to do some work, there are wheelbarrows, brushcutters, lawnmowers, rakes, shovels, hoes, chainsaws (with sound effects), and leaf blowers to get the job done. Of course, you’ll want to make sure they always wear their helmet.

Lastly, another popular part of pretend play is the use of puppets. Puppets can be found in hand puppets, finger puppets, bath puppets, baby puppets, pop-ups and marionette designs. Along with the puppets, there are puppet props and wonderful puppet shows to add to the fun. The puppet designs available are endless, from cartoon characters, fantasy (fairies, wizards), people, and animals (aquatic, birds, insects, dinosaurs, dogs, farm animals, fish, and frogs, to name just a few). You and your child can put on a puppet show or purchase one of the many puppet shows offered at tabletop, floor, door, and puppet theaters. Pop-up puppets are a fun way to play peek-a-boo with a child or hide-and-seek. Puppets are a great way to interact and have imaginative play with your child.

Imaginative play is an important part of the game. Role-playing and dress-up allow children to experiment with the different roles of the people they observe. The toys and accessories that surround your child will allow him to identify with different characters and try out different domestic roles. Imaginary play helps children adapt more easily to the challenges of our everyday world.