Children's involvement in imaginative play depends on your support and creativity. By offering an array of objects for make-believe, parents communicate to children that pretending is a valued activity, thus supporting their entire development during the preschool years.

Put together prop boxes for your kids with three or four props that help get your child's play theme under way. Then, as the child's interest dwindles, add another theme-related item to restimulate the play.

GROCERY STORE

•Paper bags
•Toy cash register
•Play money
•Empty cereal boxes, plastic food and clean juice and milk cartons

NOTE: When interest in the grocery store diminishes, make it a shoe store.

DOCTOR'S OFFICE

•Medical kit
•Bandages
•Dolls
•Tongue depressor
•Ace bandage

NOTE: When interest in the doctor's office subsides, pull out stuffed animals and make it a veterinary office.

BUSINESS OFFICE

•Keyboard
•Telephone
•Tablet of paper
•Envelopes
•Adhesive notes
•Hole puncher
•Tape

MATERIALS TO SUPPORT ALL PLAY THEMES

•Blankets
•Big, empty boxes
•Wood
•Masking tape
•String
•Cardboard
•Large paper
•Discarded paper towel rolls

Jan Faull, a child-development and behavior specialist, is in her 25th year as a parent-education instructor and public speaker. She is the author of the recently published Unplugging Power Struggles as well as MOMMY! I HAVE TO GO POTTY!, a guide to toilet training. Faull lives with her husband and three children in Renton, Washington.