I miss the days where my kids were super excited to get dressed up for Halloween. I used to go all out and get them fun accessories to go along with their costumes. They loved to keep the accessories to play with after the holiday was over.
Funny story… Many years ago when my teens were little (ages 2 and 4 1/2) we were at Disney World for Halloween. At night they were giving away candy to all the children and children were allowed to wear costumes. We didn’t know about this when we flew down there so we went to a local department store to get the kids costumes. We didn’t want to spend too much and we didn’t want something that wouldn’t fit in our luggage on the flight home. We ended up getting our daughter a chocolate chip cookie costume and my son was dressed like a cow and it said “Got Milk?” on the front of his costume.
I thought they looked cute together – milk and a cookie. My son was too young to care at that time but our daughter had a fit. She wanted to be a princess. When we arrived at Disney World EVERY little girl was a princess and every little boy was a pirate. No one stood out except my kids. We received so many compliments from parents while at the park that they loved our costumes because they were cute and original.
Fast forward 13 years… our daughter is still miffed that we didn’t get her a princess costume that Halloween. LOL!
I have a feeling that the characters from Frozen – especially Elsa and Anna – are going to be super popular costumes this year. I know if I was a little girl I would love to be Elsa for a day. She has such a beautiful dress in the movie and I love her hair.
Your child doesn’t have to wait until Halloween to play “dress up”. Dressing up is a fun playtime activity that sparks the imagination. I used to play dress up with my mom’s clothes when I was a little girl.
Check out this great article about the benefits of dress up play.
“Back to Pre-School” Benefits of pretend play
Children learn by imagining and doing. The process of pretending builds skills in many essential developmental areas. Dress-up play is vital to a child’s development. According to licensed child psychologist Dr. Laurie Zelinger, “It fosters the imaginative processes, and allows for play without rules or script. Dress up allows for experimentation, role play and fantasy.“
Major benefits include:
Social and Emotional Skills
Dress up allows for experimenting with the social and emotional roles of life. Through cooperative play, children learn societal rules such as how to take turns, share responsibility, and creatively problem-solve. Character play means that the child is “walking in someone else’s shoes” and it encourages teamwork along with an interest in peers. The child also learns to negotiate which helps teach the important moral development skill of empathy. Since children see the world from their own point of view, cooperative play helps them understand the feelings of others.
Language Skills
When children engage in pretend play, you will hear words and phrases you never thought they knew. Pretend play requires children to invent and tell stories and since almost all children narrate their pretend play experiences, they train their minds to transform ideas into words. Children usually mimic words and ideas from parents, teachers, daycare or what they hear on TV. This repetition builds vocabulary and helps kids visualize what they say, especially when adults offer feedback to help kids better understand the words they use. This also helps with grammar – they may not know the rules but they are training themselves to speak like adults. This also helps make the connection between spoken and written language — a skill that will later help them to read.
Self-Control
Young kids typically have little self-control. During pretend play, children have to take a role and play within those boundaries, especially when other kids are involved. Studies show that children control their impulses significantly better during pretend play than at other times. Did you ever wonder why parents often make up a game to get their children to eat their vegetables or finish chores? Transforming an unappealing task into a make-believe game is a popular trick among clever parents and educators.
Problem Solving Skills
Pretend play also provides your child with a variety of problems to solve. Whether it’s the logistics of sharing toys or a pretend problem the children are escaping from, the child calls upon important cognitive thinking skills that he or she will use in every aspect of his or her life, now and forever. Role playing games lead children to face situations that far exceed kids’ real-life experiences. Children work out confusing, scary, or new life issues. Through these role plays, children become more comfortable and prepared for life events in a safe way. Children often use pretend play to work out more personal challenging life events too, whether it is coping with an illness in the family, the absence of a parent or divorce, or a house fire. Although kids may not always act logically during tough pretend dilemmas, the very process of problem solving becomes habitual. By practicing problem solving in an artificial environment, kids are better prepared to think of creative solutions to their own real-life problems.
Self-esteem
By giving your child complete control in their pretend world and accepting them as a silly character, you are enhancing their self-esteem. While they use their own initiative to develop story lines, their creative imagination to expand stories and their own personality to choose a character they enjoy, you are enhancing their self-esteem by allowing them complete power in the world & enjoying it with them. Take for example superheroes. Considering the thrill children get out of pretending to be a grown-up, it’s no wonder that they’re also crazy about mimicking the most powerful version of adults: superheroes. Pretending to be Batman or Wonder Woman allows a toddler to feel brave and invincible, which helps them develop self-confidence. Similarly, all that running and leaping keeps them active and builds strength, balance, and coordination.
Quotes
Kate Muddiman, Creative Director, Great Pretenders;
“ Confidence is brought about in children by the realization that they have the ability to be anybody they want in this life and accomplish anything they desire. Our goal at Great Pretenders is to help kids achieve that level of confidence and to start young”
“Surely pretend play has many benefits for child development but one of the main things is that it’s also FUN for parents and for children! It’s a great bonding experience, especially when you participate in your child’s make belief world”
About Great Pretenders
At Great Pretenders, we are constantly on the hunt for great fabrics, trims and findings which can be transformed into inspiring pretend-play toys for children. Not only do we aim to provide the best value for your dollar, we strive to be as innovative as possible in what we make. For example, all of our products are easy-care and with maximum sizing flexibility. We also also make great strides on the creative end – our popular reversible costumes & capes are fan-favourites and have won several acclaimed toy awards.
Celebrating over 25 years and 25 awards, our team continues to excel in designing creative products that are size flexible, reversible, comfortable, and provide great value to customers. All of our products are fully tested to ensure compliance with all North American standards. We continue to manufacture many products in North America and we’ve grown this local focus in our 2014 selection.
As one of the oldest dress up companies in North America, and the only domestic costume manufacturer, we know what it takes to create and produce toys that ignite and inspire imagination. And we make them to last long after the memories they make.
We at Great Pretenders believe that “dress-up” is so much more than just putting on a costume, as Oppenheim Toy Portfolio says: “Pretend play is not just great fun. It’s the way kids develop imagination and creative thinking skills and try out being big and powerful. Pretending also brings the world down to the child’s size and understanding. It’s a way to develop communication skills and an outlet for expressing feelings and fears.”
If your little one is looking to dress up like a princess this year, or perhaps even a pirate, you should check out the costumes and accessories available at Great Pretenders.
Great Pretenders sent me a B-E-A-U-T-F-U-L set of fairy/butterfly wings to check out the quality of their products. We’re had wings before – even wings from Disney – that were not nearly as wonderfully made as the wings I received from Great Pretenders. They are exceptionally well made. They even came in a beautiful tulle-like bag with a fuzzy pom pom on the end.
I work with little children and I am super excited to bring this in to them to let them play dress up. After reading the above article I want to see about getting more dress up items for the kids I work with. I really think they would enjoy it.
If you would like to learn more about Great Pretenders and see their available costumes and accessories visit GreatPretenders.ca. They are located in Canada but they do have a US site too. You can also find the brand on social media. The links can be found on the home page.
Great Pretenders would love to give a lucky reader a BEAUTIFUL costume that resembles Elsa’s outfit from the movie Frozen.
The Crystal Queen Prize Pack comes with the Crystal Queen dress, Cinderella tiara, Snow Queen cape and silver Princess slippers.
This giveaway is open to U.S. and Canadian residents only and will end on October 9, 2014 at 11:59 PM (EST). The winner will be chosen at random using a random number generator from all eligible entries. The winner will be notified via e-mail and will have three days to reply or a new winner will be chosen in their place.
To enter please comment on this post and tell me why you would like to win this giveaway?
For extra entries you can use the Rafflecopter widget (below) but you must complete the initial entry requirement or the additional entries wont’ qualify (I do check). Extra entries are optional.
Kimberly
*I received a free product sample in order to do this review. There was no compensation. The opinions expressed are my own and not influenced in any way.
Patricia Wojnar Crowley says
I’d love to win for my niece! She would love to choose a store bough costume this year!
courtney b says
my daughter loves to dress up as a princess, so i know she would love this !:)
Thank you!
Cynthia R says
I would like to win this giveaway, because my niece would look great in this costume can use it for halloween or dress up time.
crissie woolard says
I would want this for my daughter so she could wear it for Halloween
Darlene Jones-Nelson says
My Grand daughter would look So damn cute in this costume
Kimberly Schotz says
I would love to win this for my granddaughter. She plans to be Elsa for Halloween.
Kristen says
My friend’s daughter would love this!
nickie says
My niece would love this.
amy pugmire says
My girls love anything frozen.
amy deeter says
my daughter loves to play dress up.and she is a big frozen fan
April says
My daughter loves anything Frozen!!
Ken Ohl says
my little niece would love this
D Schmidt says
I would love to win because this is something my niece would love, thanks for the chance.
Anja says
my granddaughter is 4 and loves frozen and loves to play dressup
Brynn says
you have no idea how much my daughter would absolutely love this! 🙂
Monique Rizzo says
I would love to win because my niece would have a blast.
Tari Lawson says
My son loves playing dress up and when my niece comes over, she wants to play too. Unfortunately, all I have are boy outfits.
Meghan Malicoat says
Because my daughter loves to play dress up and she is obsessed with Frozen. She thinks she is a princess.
Sarah C says
I think this is one of the prettiest Elsa dresses I’ve seen. My daughter would really love it!
Anne Marie Carter says
I know a very special little girl who would LOVE this dress!
sara says
my youngest daughter would love this
Ellie Wright says
I just had a granddaughter, so I’d love to win this and keep it for her til she’s a little bigger.
Rebecca Orr says
My daughter is into everything Princess! She would love this for Halloween and for playtime at home.
Wendy McBride says
I would love to give it to my Niece for her daughter who loves it!
wendym at cableone dot net
Vicki Wurgler says
my granddaughter would have fun playing with this – she’d love the tiara
Justina Justice says
My son’s best friend.. wants to be Elsa and her mom thinks she is not being creative enough… but if she saw this one.. it is so beautiful!
Robin Wilson says
I would like to win because I love my niece and my niece love to play dress-up.
Jennifer says
I would love to win this for one of my daughters
Jennifer Tilson says
My daughter loves dressing up as a princess. She’s love this dress.
Jennifer Tilson says
I subscribed via bloglovin’ under magmom73.
Jessamine D. says
I’d love to win this because one of my daughters would love the Elsa dress! 🙂
Lisa V. says
I would like to win because my grandchild would love it.
Alisha Kostiuk says
I would like to win because it would be the perfect costume for my niece.
Debbie Welchert says
I would love to win this for my granddaughter who would love wearing this for Halloween.
Erica B. says
My niece would love it.
Kimberly says
I would like to win because my little girl would LOVE this.
Leanne G says
I would like to win this for my little girls who love to play dress-up!
Sonya says
My youngest would love this gorgeous dress!
wendy rozema says
I’d like to win this for my daughter!!
Lacey Burd says
This would be perfect for my princess loving, dressup loving little girl! My Avy would just love it!
Karen Drake says
I would love to win this for my daughter, she would love it.
Jennifer J says
My niece Violet would go absolutely crazy over this. She loves the movie and she doesn’t have any dress up items yet. Thanks!!
Laurie Emerson says
I would like to win this as my daughter loves Frozen and would love this dress.
Laurie Emerson says
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Laurie Emerson
Tim says
I would love to win this for my niece who is obsessed with everything Frozen!
Betty B. says
Would love to win my friends daughter would love this!
Tammie Venne says
my 5 year old would think this is frozen and she would flip
Kyle Banderman says
My daughter would love to wear this around the house!
HilLesha says
I know that my daughter would love this. If not available in a toddler size, I have a niece that would love it, too. 🙂
JR FrugalMom says
I would love to win the costume, because my little girl loves to dress up and she loves the frozen movie. Her three older brothers like to dress up as well, but I will admit that I just love it, when she wants to dress up in sparkly clothes and accessorize.
cynthia Painter says
I would love to win this because my daughter would LOVE this prize. I would give it to her for a birthday gift!
susan smoaks says
i would like to win this for our little princess she would be super excited.
Stephanie Galbraith says
I want to win this for my daughter.
Carmen N says
I want to win because my daughter LOVES Frozen!
Brittney House says
I would love this for my niece when she play dress up.
Leslie Davis says
To give to my friend’s daughter.
tina reynolds says
My daughter carly would be so thrilled with this
Lisa Garner says
I would love to win because my daughter loves all things Frozen and would have so much fun dressing up as Elsa.
Candie L says
I would love this for a close family friend. Thank you
Melanie Comello says
Because my little girl loves to play pretend dress up……she can spend her entire day, going through different outfits and playing different roles. She would be in absolute love with this!