We Play: For Fresh, Fun, Family Play Ideas

We have been playing in our fruit and vegie shop for a few weeks now and it has evolved in that time (whilst staying simple and playful).
It all began with a clicky purse and some pretend money (thank you, Grandma) and Immy’s request to make a Fruit and Vegie Shop. We collected up our play food (for some reason we had to add our cardboard fish to this F&V shop??) and dedicated the top two shelves of a bookcase in the playroom to the shop.
We take turns being the customer and the shopkeeper and love tying in what we buy with cooking play in the play kitchen. There has been lots of vegetable soup and fruit salad on offer.
This week we added both a store sign and an open/closed sign to the shop. I love using play to introduce children to the many purposes print serves in real life. To read more about environmental print, you might like to revisit this post.

My favourite post from last week reminds us that simple, playful fun is often the best type.

I am looking forward to seeing what you have been playing.

Have a playful week,
Christie x

Full instructions for first time players can be found here. Please remember to link back to We Play in the body of your post 🙂

23 Comments

  1. leechbabe says:

    Playing shop is so much fun 🙂 Annie's classroom has a mini shop set up at the moment with kids sized shopping trolley and real cash register.

  2. Raising a Happy Child says:

    I love Immy's expression in the first photo – she really inspects that veggie 🙂 Playing store is always popular here too.

  3. What a fun play shop! Love the open closed sign!

  4. Your play store is lovely, and I also really like the open/closed sign!

  5. Infant Bibliophile says:

    What a great idea! And kudos to you for having the patience to play it with her often. I have to admit that after my initial enthusiasm that my son wanted to play with his toy money to buy things from me, I got tired of it quickly. It is so hard sometimes to just slow down and play at their speed, at least for me.

  6. I'm responsible for the fruit salad and vegie soup. I introduced that the other weekend when I was over to break up the shop routine a little bit.

  7. Great! I love it and so did she by the looks of it.

  8. Busy Brissy Mum says:

    Immy's shop is so cute. I want to play!

  9. love the shop. We often have one here but it is more of a gift shop

  10. Larabelle says:

    We're also playing endless rounds of the 'shopping game'here at the moment. My 3 yo was given that exact same cash register for her birthday last week. It's great fun!

  11. Our wooden fruit and vegetables that can be cut apart on the velcro are still a firm fave. Once I asked one of my girls what her favourite vegetable was and she replied "bacon". Hmmm maybe need to keep on talking about food groups!

  12. Hear Mum Roar says:

    I love shop play! We used to have a window between rooms at our old place, and the kids would treat it like a shop window/counter. So cute

  13. Playing shop is awesome! I can't wait to visit everyones post later on.

  14. littlewondersdays says:

    I'm in love with your little shop! We have most of the items you pictured, just not set up as fun.

    I bet if I do some rearranging there will be some new pretend play in our house!

  15. This is such a gorgeous idea! I've been deliberating over whether or not to buy a toy cash register for my little boy and I think this has convinced me.

    Leo also loves making fruit and veg into faces but we've been using real fruit and it tends to result in bruised apples!

  16. oooh you have some fab shop accessories! My kids LOVE to play shops!

  17. Chapter Forty says:

    I love your shop, its a great role playing game. When we didn't have the play food toys, we used to just play toy shop. No shortage of toys around.
    I loved to pretend I was a Mum looking for a toy for my special children. B used to get such a kick out it. But I admit he really doesn't get the concept of a credit card yet.

  18. This looks like so much fun. I just love that picture of her changing the sign.

  19. vanessa @ silly eagle books says:

    Thanks for the invitation–so glad I found your blog! I'm your newest follower! 🙂

  20. Memetales says:

    Love your blog and play post.
    I just discovered your blog couple of days ago and now I am discovering so many other wonderful blogs as a result!

  21. Petit Eco KIDS says:

    What a well stocked little shop! 🙂 So much fun to be had! Just checking all the links now, many great ideas!

  22. Anne@LittleSproutBooks says:

    B would love a shop that was a fixture – usually we lay out the play foods along the couch and he shops there.

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