Pretend Play Workshop for Kids: A Year of DIY Craft Projects and Open-Ended Screen-Free Learning for Kids Ages 3–7

Kruse and Roberson—founders of Magic Playbook, a monthly subscription service that sends out activity ideas for young children—debut with an inventive manual on how to make “play scenes” for kids. Suggesting that playing pretend allows children to “rehearse things that may be new, exciting, [or] anxiety-provoking,” the authors detail how parents can create homemade props to mimic such venues as an art museum, hair salon, post office, or train station. For the ice cream shop, Kruse and Roberson show how to twist white or brown yarn into a spiral resembling soft serve ice cream and tape it to a toilet paper roll “cone,” and how to make an ice cream seller’s hat from cardstock and tissue paper. The projects almost exclusively use common crafts items; for instance, the doctor’s office includes “x-rays” made from white paint handprints pressed on black paper. The crafts are mostly kid-friendly, though a few pieces require some adult assistance, such as the “hair dryer” constructed by hot-gluing a paper cup to a toilet paper roll. The set ups make creative use of ordinary objects, and parents will appreciate the reliance on inexpensive materials. It’s an ideal guide for crafting as a family. (Aug.)