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Santa’s Workshop Pretend Play

Ho ho ho! It’s time to get into the holiday spirit with Santa’s Workshop Pretend Play. Our play area changes every month, December is the month to merry and we want all your little Elves to join us for some festive fun. They can even dress the part with our elf and santa hats.

Santa's Workshop Pretend Play

The workshop has all the components any little elf would love.

Santa's Workshop Pretend Play

We love these take apart and build toys. Your little one can build a plane, roadster or crane truck using a motorized drill and toddler friendly bolts and bits.

Santa's Workshop Pretend Play

You can make a special deliver to Santa by mailing letters in our mailbox.

Santa's Workshop Pretend Play

The kids can decorate the tree to their heart’s content by placing stick on ornaments on our felt tree. We have all types of ornaments like snowmen, candy canes and stockings. It’s much more than just decorating, it’s learning about shapes and objects.

Santa's Workshop Pretend Play

The best thing about being in the North pole is being able to ride a reindeer. We have ones you can bounce on.

Santa's Workshop Pretend Play

…and a red nosed reindeer you can rock on.

Santa's Workshop Pretend Play

Buy some of these toys below:

You can see videos of our pretend play are on our youtube channel.

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Music Dramatic Play

We’re making some noise over at Imagine Play this month with our Music Dramatic Play. We know how much kids love to sing, dance and create. This month’s theme will fulfill the hearts of those creative minds.

We start with a picture worthy musical backdrop.

Music Dramatic Play

The back wall includes a Xylophone (not pictured) and a light up frog drum set. The kids can freestyle, but there is a also a game where they kids have to catch a fly by tapping the drum when they see the fly.

Music Dramatic Play

There is also a guitar the kids can wear and pretend to rock out. It plays different genres of music and has light up buttons.

Music Dramatic Play

The kids love to dance on the giant floor piano. They can freestyle and also record a song and play it back.

Music Dramatic Play

However, their favorite activity from the Music Dramatic Play is singing along to Moana and Elsa on these microphones. They can spend quite a while listening and following along to the words.

Music Dramatic Play

Come join us for Open Play this month to create music.

music dramatic play

Items featured on this blog are below or you can search other Pretend Play  items here:

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Pumpkin Patch Dramatic Play

Sweater weather is in the air, the leaves are changing colors and it’s almost time for trick or treating. We know the kids love visiting the pumpkin patch this time of the year, so we brought the pumpkin patch indoors. Your kids will love picking pumpkins in our pumpkin patch dramatic play area.

Pumpkin patch dramatic play

Our patch includes all different size pumpkins with some fun textured one for sensory. We especially love the stuffed pumpkins wrapped like a sweater.

pumpkin patch dramatic play

The kids can pick pumpkins and roll it around on a wagon.

pumpkin patch pretend play

They can make friends with our scarecrows….

pumpkin patch dramatic play

….or relax on some hay bales.

pumpkin patch dramatic play

One of the things we love about the pumpkins is they are light enough for even the littlest of kids to carry. We can’t wait to see your kids enjoy our pumpkin patch in our pretend play area. Come visit us for open play soon.

Pumpkin patch dramatic play

Most of the items from our pumpkin patch was purchased from our local craft store this year, such as Joanns. However, you can purchase some similar items here:

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What are our weekend hours?

Just a quick blog about our weekend hours to help clarify some confusion. You’ll notice on some sites like yelp and google our weekend hours will differ than what’s on calendar on our website.

EVERY WEEKEND, you can expect that we are open between 9:30am to 12:00pm. We close at 12:00pm to accommodate private birthday party bookings. HOWEVER, there are some days when we may open later if there are no parties booked. Unfortunately, many of the sites that is not our own doesn’t allow a “variable hours” button, so you’ll see sites like yelp or google list our hours from 9:30am to 12:00pm. The most accurate and up to date weekend hours are listed on the calendar on our website. You can see the calendar under the open play tab or below.

We are in fact open 7 days a weeks, with the exception of some holidays or some special maintenance days. Those will be notated accurately or all sites.

Hope that clears things up a bit. See you for OPEN PLAY soon.

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Camping Pretend Play

This month’s rotating theme in our play area  is Camping pretend play. It’s our first theme that we are recycling as we approach our 1 year anniversary. We re-used our camping tent, but have a bunch of new accessories for our camping theme too. We included a woodsy backdrop to complete the camping atmosphere.

camping pretend play

You can’t go camping without looking the part. The kids can dress up in a adventure vest and hat. Don’t forget the binoculars for some bird watching.

camping pretend play

Listen and learn about the sound of animals in the wilderness with our animal caller.

camping pretend play

After sit around the camp fire and roast some marshmallows with your friends.

camping pretend play

When they are tired they can gaze upon the stars in their tent.

camping pretend play

Come join us for camping pretend play soon.

camping pretend play

You can buy all the items from this theme here:

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When is the best time to come play?

Since all parents and children are unique, we understand the answer to this question is several different answers as parents are all looking for different things when it comes to playtime. This post will outline our best times to come for socialization or when to visit for a more calm experience.

Busy time vs Slow Times

Mornings – Mornings from Opening til about 1:00pm is generally our busier time of the day.  There is definitely a chance when you come at this time that every table is filled, but it is a great for kids to socialize.

Afternoon – Our quietest time of the day is form 1:00pm – 3:00pm. If your child wants the place peaceful this is perfect for them. After 3:00pm we may get a little rush again, however, not as filled as our morning hours.

Busy Days vs Slow Days

Monday and Tuesday are generally our slower days of the week.

Thursday and Friday are our busiest days of the week.

Weekday vs. Weekend

The biggest difference between a weekday and weekend is the hourly activities. During the week every hour we run a sensory, art and craft or game. We do not run these activities on the weekend to prepare for upcoming birthday parties. REMINDER: make sure you check out hours during the weekend, we can be open later than you expect.

Littles Vs Bigs

While our play space is designed for children between 1 to 7 years old, in the morning you’ll see more children within the age range of 1 to 3 years olds. In the afternoon we do get a variety of ages, but you can expect a few more older children.

Hot vs Cold Weather

Both are equal, as we do experience the rainy season and the extreme hot season where we are located, but you can expect that cold weather means for more full mornings and hot weather can, but not always, have crowded afternoons. Months that have seemed the slowest for us are May, June, August and September. Our birthday party season is the most prominent during the colder months as well.

Imagine Play Elk Grove When is the best time to visit

The most appropriate time to play is up to you. Hopefully this post gave you an idea of when to come to fit your family needs.

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Back to School Pretend Play

Since August is back to school month we thought we would join in the festivities and do our own back to school pretend play. Even your non-school age kids can go back to school at Imagine Play.

Back to School Pretend Play

The kids can ride to school on their very own yellow school bus and park it on campus.

back stool pretend play

The theme includes an art desk that we adore! They come with a little drawer to store all the kids art supplies. The perfect combination of cute style and function, it would look awesome in a child’s bedroom!

Back to school pretend play

Instead of including notebooks and pens we decided to put these magnetic mazes from Lakeshore Learning on the desks. The kids can pretend to write with the magnetic pens. We have several themes for mazes, which helps the kids learn their letters and shapes.

back to school pretend play

Read to your kids in our back to school corner. We included a very sensory friendly book and a classic that every kid loves by Eric Carle.

Back to School pretend play

Toddler friendly backpacks are hung on the wall for kids to carry around their favorite thing. This is such a cute edition to our back to school pretend play theme and the kids love wearing them!

Back to School Pretend Play

Lastly, an alphabet pocket center is includes with flash cards. Kids can sort the cards by letters and learn the objects associated with each letter.

Back to school has been a joy to put together and we know your kids will enjoy going back to school too! Visit us for open play in the month of August to enjoy this play area.

You can buy any of the items from this theme below:

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Summer Cookout Pretend Play

Every month we change our pretend area and July’s theme is Summer Cookout as inspired by the season.

Pretend Play Summer Cookout

To develop our dramatic play area we tried to think about all the fun things about summer such as going to the beach, barbecues and outdoor games. Here’s what we came up with to incorporate our Summer Cookout Pretend Play ideas.

The statement piece of this area is the giant connect 4, which we have to admit that we’ve had in our amazon wish list since before we opened. It’s is a great representation of fun childhood games only giant size and made for backyard fun.

Summer Cookout pretend play

Even though most of the kids haven’t grasp the concept of the game, they still like to put the donuts in the connector just the same.

Summer Cookout Pretend Play

This little Webster grill looks like the real thing. It even comes hamburger items that the kids can have fun stacking and taking apart. The kids love cooking on it. You can get it in the bigger version as well. We opted for the more beach friendly version.

Summer Cookout Pretend Play

Our interpretation of the beach us this felt aquarium. The kids love making their own water scene and it’s educational too by helping the kids recognize animals. They love the ones that look like our favorite Disney fishes.

Summer Cookout Pretend Play

You can come visit us for Open Play to enjoy July’s Summer Cookout Pretend Play area or visit us next month for another surprise.

All the toys listed in this blog can be bought below.