A Paper Office

Children often mimic what adults do and say.  How people work is something very interesting to children.  They can play to be doctors, teachers, scientists, chefs and all that adds to their imagination.  But to play these roles you don't need to buy expensive sets if you can make some of your own, that they participate and have double fun.

This week we played Office at home, replicating what my children see in his dad: working in the computer, while attending phone calls.

Paper made laptop and cell phone with alphabet and numbers

Making these elements with paper add a new symbolism to the game, as children can help folding the paper, decorating or writing the letters themselves. 

Adding a question mark to the game allowed them to incorporate a new way to ask a question and wait for turns by holding the question mark, or if an imaginary customer has a question they don't know they used the question mark to find out.

They replicated exactly how his father works from home sometimes, and they felt this was a very important task to be completed, and not being interrupted.

This activity teaches them also how communication works, how people use these channels to work and learn in a game setting, in which you are not worried they are breaking the actual phone or laptop.  We even practiced some greetings to answer the phone so they had fun playing as an actual office.

This can be a good activity combined with other variants; it is good to see how engaged in the game they were and it is also an opportunity to practice the alphabet and numbers.