5 Fridge Essentials

Children's imaginations are unfettered and a box -- any box -- offers limitless opportunities.  It encourages creativity, amplifies imaginations and in the case of WunderNook, nurtures building skill. 

A simple cardboard box is magical to many children and leads to so much open-ended play. Likewise, a cabinet, like our fridge, may not be just a fridge.  Children see so much more than we adults do.

5 Essential Tips for the Fridge

Children’s minds are filled with ideas and simple structures allow imaginations to flourish. Use these tips to catapult neverending play.

Imagination

It’s a fridge! Or is it? Perhaps it’s a stacked washing machine and dryer. Maybe it’s a cupboard. Perhaps it’s an apartment for your child’s lovies. The possibilities are truly endless – especially if you encourage your child to share his or her thoughts, no matter how surreal and complicated they may be! 

Setup

Once your child has an idea about how she wants to play with the structure, ask her to talk through how she plans to setup her play. If it’s a fridge, what food goes on the top and what goes on the bottom? Is the lower section more fridge space or is it a freezer? If it’s an apartment, how is the room organized? Let your child take the lead and be creative – help her build out her idea by not asking too many leading questions. There is no right or wrong in pretend play!

Planning

This is a teaching moment for planning. Once your child has an idea and a plan, he will need items for his play. Will he use real food, toy food or will he make his own food out of craft supplies? Help your child organize his thoughts and plans.

Play

The play begins with the setup and plan, and will continue to unfold with everything in place.  Who is filling the fridge? Are friends coming over? Are they animals, classmates, family members?  Sometimes a storyline can keep play on track or last longer. 

Encourage your little chef (or love landlord),  with a WunderNook fridge, which is part of the WunderNook Classic Collection and Core Collections, for days of neverending play.