So, when I was VERY little (I was riding my little trike in the kitchen, so I'm guessing about 2), my mother had a very simple game she used to play with me.
I say 'game' but I suspect it was a way to get five minute's peace (I seem to have spent my early years talking, singing constantly and asking questions).
I say 'game' but I suspect it was a way to get five minute's peace (I seem to have spent my early years talking, singing constantly and asking questions).
So my mother's game was to pretend to give me money and send me shopping.
I would then cycle off down the hall and go in one or more of the bedrooms 'buying' whatever it was I'd been sent off to get.
I would then return and reel off the various messages I'd 'bought' (we pretended they were on the back of my trike) and I would be asked for the change - which I would count out into Mammy's hand.
I would then return and reel off the various messages I'd 'bought' (we pretended they were on the back of my trike) and I would be asked for the change - which I would count out into Mammy's hand.
I was telling my friends David and Levy about this at the weekend and they sent me the lovely photos of their little Huxley not just playing the original game, but developing it into imagining a little mouse!
I think we often underestimate what young children are capable of imagining and understanding, but these pictures (and my memories) tell me that they are capable of SO much. AND that we don't need resolved or complicated toys to entertain them.
Shoppies
I moved on to have a small 'shop' in a corner of the kitchen. Again, not with bought toys (though I know you can get every conceivable thing in toy form now) but with the packaging of anything we were finished with. My mother would wash out old washing up liquid bottles, keep old cereal boxes, salt containers, boxes that tea bags came in... and give them to me for my shop.
Looking back, with more professional EY knowledge now, I can see that one of the reasons I loved this was that the items were so familiar to me from our family using them and so felt real.
By then (I guess I was maybe 3) my mum would come shopping to my little shop and I can just about remember that I don't think we had any money for this game either (not even toy money or buttons). I suspect that since everything was 'real' then imitation or pretend money wouldn't have cut it for me! My grandad had a little shop that sold sweeties, biscuits and ice-cream, so I guess that also influenced things, but I just loved this game.
Learning
I remembered this while writing Zeki Goes to the Market and it made me think about all the learning that was possible with this simple game (especially the first one which needed no props at all). There is so much language still going on - naming the items on the shopping list; counting out the 'money'; and of course, all the imagining...
the work that needs to happen for 2 people to 'pretend' – soooo important for language acquisition which in essence is agreeing that this 'symbolic' word (which bears no relationship to that thing) will mean this thing to us.
So - I encourage you - play shoppies! Play it at the most basic imaginary level...
collect bits and bobs to make a shop... you'll love it!
For more ideas of things to do alongside reading Zeki Goes to the Market, click here.
I moved on to have a small 'shop' in a corner of the kitchen. Again, not with bought toys (though I know you can get every conceivable thing in toy form now) but with the packaging of anything we were finished with. My mother would wash out old washing up liquid bottles, keep old cereal boxes, salt containers, boxes that tea bags came in... and give them to me for my shop.
Looking back, with more professional EY knowledge now, I can see that one of the reasons I loved this was that the items were so familiar to me from our family using them and so felt real.
By then (I guess I was maybe 3) my mum would come shopping to my little shop and I can just about remember that I don't think we had any money for this game either (not even toy money or buttons). I suspect that since everything was 'real' then imitation or pretend money wouldn't have cut it for me! My grandad had a little shop that sold sweeties, biscuits and ice-cream, so I guess that also influenced things, but I just loved this game.
Learning
I remembered this while writing Zeki Goes to the Market and it made me think about all the learning that was possible with this simple game (especially the first one which needed no props at all). There is so much language still going on - naming the items on the shopping list; counting out the 'money'; and of course, all the imagining...
the work that needs to happen for 2 people to 'pretend' – soooo important for language acquisition which in essence is agreeing that this 'symbolic' word (which bears no relationship to that thing) will mean this thing to us.
So - I encourage you - play shoppies! Play it at the most basic imaginary level...
collect bits and bobs to make a shop... you'll love it!
For more ideas of things to do alongside reading Zeki Goes to the Market, click here.
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