Fancy Dress Fun

www.fridayschildmontessori.com

Ah, the good old dressing up box.

Every home with pre-schoolers (and older

children) should have a dressing up box

somewhere.

There are many educational bonuses that

come from having a fancy dress box.

Firstly, the children playing with the items

in there get to practise some of their self-

care skills (something we’re right into

with Montessori education) as they put the

items on: doing up buttons, getting clothes

round the right way and all the rest of it.

Secondly, playing with dress-up clothes

encourages fantasy play, which is

excellent for stimulating creative thinking

and the imagination.

Experts say that fantasy play is most

beneficial if children write their own

“scripts” for the stories they act out in

their play rather than following a script

dictated by a book, movie or a TV show.

Children will re-enact what they’ve heard

or seen, of course. They’ve been doing this

long before TV was invented, so it would

be wrong to blame this medium for

scripted fantasy play.

But your children are more likely to go for

unscripted play (i.e. writing their own

scripts) if the dress up items are more

generic rather than associated with a

certain character.

This doesn’t mean that you should ban all

Spiderman and Snow White costumes as a

way of encouraging unscripted play.

They have their place, as long as they don’t

dominate. And a child who has a mental

diet of a range of things (books, good TV

shows and movies) will take their

characters into new situations.

But it would be wise to keep the licensed

costumes to a minimum. It tends to be

cheaper, too!

The American feminist writer and mother

Peggy Orenstein wrote a very enlightening

and sometimes funny book entitled

“Cinderalla Ate My Daughter”

She highlights the way the emphasis on

princesses, especially of the Disney sort,

programmes little girls into a lifestyle of

obsessing about looks and consumerism.

This book highlights the fact that when it

comes to costumes and dressing-up

options for girls in particular, the options

seem to be rather limited to fairies,

princesses and fairy princesses, with the

odd mermaid (probably a princess as

well).

It would probably be helpful for your

child, whether male or female, to provide

dress-up items that aren’t gender-limiting.

This isn’t to say that you should ban

princess gear – everybody likes a bit of

sparkly bling and a tiara or so now and

again. But you should have other options

available.

More interesting articles about children

learning and Montessori Learning

Activities at

www.fridayschildmontessori.com