Dress up time

How I love imaginary play. By far it is my very favorite to watch. Seeing how creative children can be is fantastic. Because we love make believe play I make an incredible effort to provide as much useful things as possible for the girls to incorporate into their games. When it comes to girls that means LOTS of costumes. But really, think about it, all kids love costumes. My girls LOVE to dress up so finding plenty of puffy sparkly dresses is a must. While we have plenty of gowns for the girls to use I do like to add other garments to their dress up bin. It is important to have both male and female garments in the dress up bin.

What's in our dress up bin? Here are a few of the pieces of dress up in our bin:

Ties (all cast offs from Daddy's closet)
Hats: ball caps, pirate hat, cowboy hat, fedora,
Belts: all sizes and types are required for creating new outfits.
Skirts: tutus, grass, A-line (all with elastic waists so that it can be worn by all sizes and layered, longer skirts double as dresses too)
Button down shirts (more of Daddy's cast offs)
Old shoes
Suit jackets
Aprons
Princess gowns
Doctor jacket
Scrubs
Cowboy duster jacket
Bandanas
Bags: Purses, Totes, Backpacks
Scarfs: silk, knitted, fabric
Long scraps of fabric: for making dresses or togas
Tiaras
Costume jewelry
Gloves

We also will have bits and pieces from Halloween costumes in our bin. One of the favorites are the animal ears headbands. The kids love to put those bunny ears, cat or bear ears on to add to their costumes. Every few months I dump out our costume bin and sort it out. Broken or torn items are pulled out. I might even add a replacement depending on its importance to the play rotation. Add things, build upon and take away as goes the nature of children's play.