Back in the days, doll houses were seen as a luxury in the toy arsenal of children; they were big, made of high quality materials and expensive. And they didn’t serve as play toys, they served as decorations and little girls weren’t allowed to actually play with them, but only to look at them with admiration standing on the top shelf in their bedroom commode At least that’s how I had my houses for dolls: expensive and on the top shelf because of their high price.
It’s good to have an expensive toy like that, but I’d say that my mother was right: if I would’ve gotten my hands on that house I probably would’ve broken it and then would’ve cried for hours because she would’ve been pretty angry. Fortunately for little girls today, there are doll houses made from sturdy and durable materials which are actually made for playing. The good thing about the the ones of today, is that they are not just a play toy; besides a very fun time, a doll house offers a lot of educational benefits as well.
Playing with a house for dolls allows children to engage in imaginary games by giving their dolls names and profiles. That’s good for their intellectual and social development since they will be able to learn how to behave and how to observe the behavior of other children and characters through using symbolic representations for the objects and the actions they’re doing. Add to all that the dialogues they engage in while role-playing and you have a solid training for their social and emotional skills. And according to experts, role-play helps children build their confidence and self-awareness, which is a very important component in the entire learning process.
You can always let things take their natural course and allow your kids to choose their own games and create their own imaginary scenario – you’d be pleasantly surprised as a matter of fact. Another option would be to introduce your kids to some play activities that are were specially designed to extend their scope of learning. For instance:
- You can ask your kids to do some re-organization of the rooms and furniture so they can accommodate more people in it – talk about nurturing a future organization manager;
- Prepare them a scenario that needs to be solved by members of the family that live in the house; how about an all-timer: all members want to watch TV but they all want to watch something different.
- A well-prepared scenario for play in a doll house can easily work as a pre-course in some math concepts: think basic geometry. You can give your kids a task to measure the surface area of the floors for example. Nothing scary, but easy and appealing so math doesn’t look so ugly from the very beginning.
- And the most important thing children can learn the fun way is arranging how to do all the chores that need to be done in a house so it can be maintained on a daily basis . Nobody wants to take care of an entire house by themselves, right? Let them team up.
