costumes ahoy
Post on 07-Mar-2016
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Some parents who send their
children to our Montessori early
childhood centre do the Halloween
thing and some don’t.
But whether you do or whether you
don’t, most children enjoy the
chance to dress up in a costume at
some stage.
And seeing as this time of year is
when you get nearly every single
department store sending you
catalogues containing a selection of
costumes for Halloween,
this is a good time to talk about
fancy dress and costumes in general.
Sometimes, it’s fun to have a good
fancy dress costume handy for a
special party – whether or not this
is a Halloween party.
Most children love the role-play
aspect of dressing up, and even
adults like fancy dress now and
again.
(Puzzling question for the day,
adults: is it worse to go to a
normal party in fancy dress by
mistake, or is it worse to go in
normal clothes to a fancy dress
party by mistake?)
But even at other times, children
love to play dressing up – and
that’s boys and girls.
Dressing up is a great stimulus for
fantasy play. By donning a costume,
children get to act out a role and
use their imaginations.
Sometimes, this fantasy play is
preparation for the adult world –
they get to dress up as people from
various occupations and play at
having a real adult job.
This helps them to think about the
world around them and the roles
that people play in the community.
Just think about how a child plays
when he or she puts on a police
uniform.
Usually, they’re out to catch the
“bad guys” and put them in jail. Or
think about a child playing doctors
or builders or fire fighters…
or any other job that has a
recognizable uniform. It’s easy to
see that this fantasy play is helping
them become good citizens – which
is one of the goals of Montessori
education.
But fantasy play using dress up
costumes isn’t always as realistic as
this.
Fantasy play using costumes also
gives children to explore a world of
the imagination and to really
stretch the “fantasy” part.
This helps children develop their
creativity, if you want to put an
educational spin on what they’re
doing.
And they’re also having great fun!
And, depending on the costume,
playing dressing up also gives children
the chance to exercise their self-care
skills using zips, laces, buttons and
other fastenings.
And it’s easy to start your own
collection of dressing up clothes at
home.
In best Montessori fashion, it’s best
to have these separate from
“regular” clothes, probably in a box
as a sort of “set”.
And remember to tidy them all up
and put them back in the box once
the play session is over.
Enjoy the costume party!
www.fridayschildmontessori.com
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