Meredith’s favorite pretend play is school. She, of course, is the teacher, and her stuffed animals and dolls are the kids. They check in in the morning and out in the afternoon. They eat. They go down for naps. They have story time. They get in trouble. Most of the time the play requires Meredith to wear high heels- specifically with a clomping sound, and often times a purse is required. She goes on breaks, where I have to fill in for her. She also will come around to the rooms and make sure the children are “in ratio” and yes, she uses the term “in ratio” and will count the number of children to the teacher. Many times she uses lined paper to write their names and check them in and out.
Much of this play also requires other accessories. Now, Meredith is very much “a place for everything and everything in its place” child. Rarely would toys from one thing mix with another or a piece from a game be removed from the box. When it comes to playing school it gets slightly more interesting. Meredith loves to play with paper plates, bowls and cups. She will line them up and line all of the kids up. She will portion out the food (often pearler beads, sometimes markers, dry beans or whatever thing with a lot of small quantity she can find) in the bowls and plates for meals or snacks for the kids. She will often request her basket of baby blankets down, and soon multiple rooms of the house will be filled with dolls with blankets over top of them, sometimes with a book next to them, sometimes not. These are the cots, of course! And then the cleaning kicks in because all of those cots must be cleaned. So she digs out her spray bottle and plastic gloves and goes to town.
So often our house looks like little land minds of beads, bowls, babies and blankets. And, well, as I tell Frank (also a place for everything and everything in its place guy), she’s happy. It entertains her for hours, and it’s inexpensive. And hey, as long as I’m part of the ratio, I’ll take it!
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