We’ve had our crowns, princess shoes, swords and shields for a few years now. Our dress up bin hasn’t always been the most organized, but it’s always been well used and loved. Pretend play in our house is just an every day occurrence. It’s one reason why buying Halloween costumes and accessories has never bothered me – because they end up getting 12 months of play.
My children excel in pretend play. It’s where I see their imagination really spark – and I love that. A costume is never just one thing. It’s a princess cape, a super hero cape, an invisible cloak, a magical blanket and more all wrapped in one. As adults I think we sometimes lose the ability to really think outside of the box, but our kids are still so very good at it.
Great Pretenders is a North American company that is focused on dress up/pretend play and making the experience as fun as possible for families. The company has been around for 25 years and continues to strive to be a leader in what they do best – value and innovation in pretend play toys for kids. There’s a good chance you have one of their products in your dress up bin like I do because their fantastical and offerings are not only beautifully made but just plain fun.
Confidence is brought about in children by the realization that they have the ability to be anybody they want in this life and accomplish anything they desire. Our goal at Great Pretenders is to help kids achieve that level of confidence and to start young
-Kate Muddiman, Creative Director, Great Pretenders
Great Pretenders list five major reasons for the benefits of pretend play – Social and emotional skills, language skills, self control, problem solving skills and self esteem. The full list with their reasons can be found in this document: Benefits of Pretend play from Great Pretenders.
But as parents, we know one major reason why all of us, especially our children, love to dress up and play pretend – because it’s fun! Great Pretenders knows that as well:
Surely pretend play has many benefits for child development but one of the main things is that it’s also FUN for parents and for children! It’s a great bonding experience, especially when you participate in your child’s make belief world.
-Kate Muddiman, Creative Director, Great Pretenders
Great Pretenders have generously given me the fabulous Crystal Queen costume set – and they have offered one to you as well! I think this particular set will be quite popular among many right now – including my own 5 year old daughter!
Want to win it?
Check out the Rafflecopter entry form to find out the two ways you can enter to win! NOTE: For the Tweet, be sure to change the blank line and tell me what your child’s fave dress up is! You’ll see it pop up when you click ‘tweet’ in the Rafflecopter form!
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Open to Canadian residents, excluding Quebec. Giveaway is open until August 30, 2014. Winner will be mailed a Crystal Queen dress up set from Great Pretenders.
Disclosure: I was given a costume set for my mini-pretender. All opinions are my own. The Benefits of pretend play were provided by Great Pretenders.
that’s adorable!
I love seeing kids ‘pretend’, it’s so amazing to see their imaginations at work!
My youngest like to dress up as Spiderman all the time. My older two like to combine costumes to create new characters.
My children like to dress up in different costumes and outfits and act out scenes from their favourite tv shows and movies as well as improvise. Super cute and fun to watch.
Currently Frozen is all the rage so the kids argue over who gets to be Elsa and who gets to be Ana.
they will use anything to add to their play.
My daughter loves to make up her own characters!
My girls love to dress up and play pretend. They are in a princess and superheroes phase right now.
My daughter loves to dress up and act out the movie scenes, especially Frozen, this dress would be an amazing addition. Thank you for a wonderful offer.
My DD loves to dress up and play with figurines and will role play things based on tv/movies, or books, or songs.
They love to pretend to be princesses~1
My daughter usually loves to dress up as a princess!
Yes mine adores to be princess! 🙂
my daughter would freak for this!
My girls havnt really started to dress up but they pretend there playing with certain characters like curious george and Kayla driving to california or something. It always makes me smile to watch them play like that!
My daughter loves to act out scenes from her favorite movies!
The girls usually want to be princessess or ballerinas.
My niece is always a dress up princess
my son loves playing pretend and dressing up , so does my neice. She loves playing frozen
They usually dress and play their own thing. Sometimes that are rescuing each other and sometimes they play ninjas & spies.
My niece loves to rein-act the Wizard of Oz, and she also dresses up too!
My daughters both love to dress up, always have -I hope that wonder of imagination and play never ends 🙂
yes my daughter likes to dress up as elsa!
My daughter loves dress up play ! she frequently dresses up as a mermaid or fairy or vampire ! so much fun !
My daughter always loved playing dress up when her friends came over. They usually played princesses.
We have our very own tickle trunk and the kids spend hours playing dress up.
The grandkids love to come over when they arrive they put on 1 of the many costumes I have, a bag of accessories is handy and well used. they mostly use their imagination and create different characters
When the grandkids sleep over they are always playing dress up with my hat, purse, gloves & all my jewelry. They love to princesses!
My daughter dresses up in all different characters.
My kids love to dress up and usually its to create new characters. However when Frozen came out, my daughter wanted to be Anna all the time!
All of the above.
They love to make up their own characters by mixing up the costumes into wild and wonderful creations.