Exploring Our Kids' Ambition Through Role Play

What is your kids' ambition or what do they want to become when they grows up ? Mommy Jane always wonder 5 Little Angels' future. All of us have our own Ambition. Ambition is the most important tool to achieve success. To help them in their future decision making and to make learning is fun, Mommy Jane always encourage my Little Angels on the role-playing activities. 

Role play is an important part of our kids development. It builds their confidence, creative communication, physical development and problem solving. The fun activity also allows our kids to get into character and act out real life roles. It also helps our kids to decide what they want to be when they grow up so that they able to enact their desire through role play.

During role plays, our kids can learn many skills and attitudes. They learn how to be co-operative (teamwork) including listening, sharing, communicating, problem-solving and collaborating with others in accomplishing the tasks given. By acting it out, our kids gain a deeper understand of what they had read in school and indirectly increases their interest in learning. 

Role-playing activities can start from home or outside from the home. Anywhere and anytime that they feel comfortable with. Mommy Jane would like to share some tips here on how we should start the role playing with our children.

Step 1 is to have a simple discussion with our kids to identify the nature of business of the place that they want to work at and what type of roles that they want to become. My Little Angels said they want to work at a cafe. At a cafe, we will have a Waiter/Waitress to take order and to serve the food, Diners, Chef to cook and Cashier.

Step 2 is to Act out a Scene. We will then identify each person's role. Waiter/Waitress will welcome the Diners and usher them to the available table and pass them the menu. They will then take orders from the Diners and pass to the Chef to prepare the meal. CW and WT will be the Waitress and Waiter while WJ wanted to become the Chef.

Once the meal is ready to be served, Waiter/Waitress will serve the food to Diner. Once the Diner had completed their meal and when they ask for payment, Waiter/Waitress will pass the money to the cashier and the cashier will issue a receipt. WH had chose to serve the food to the diner .

Step 3 is to provide feedback once we had done with the role playing. As a Mom, I always had my Little Angels to provide me the feedback of the role that they had just played. Always try to start with the positive sentence i.e. "I really like the role that you had just played just now" and praise their efforts in participating. Discuss what things our kids could have done better and provide a gentle feedback about what other things could have worked.

Step 4 is to practice again the role-playing to help our kids to experiment with new behavior and different reactions until he/she feels confident about making decisions. Role playing can enhance our kids' problem-solving skills and show them that there is always more than one way to solve a problem. Allow for some creativity and discuss the potential pros and cons of behaving in a certain way. This can help our kids to recognise it although it's an option, choosing the solution may not result in the best outcome.

Besides our home, KidZania Kuala Lumpur is the best place for our kids to practise their role-playing. With 80,000 sq. ft. kid-sized city, across more than 60 establishments for kids, our kids will get to experience these real-life occupations hands-on in a fun yet engaging learning environment. For more details on KidZania, do visit their website at www.kidzania.com.my and facebook page at www.facebook.com/KidZaniaKualaLumpur.

No matter how busy lives that we had, scheduling some role-playing times are very important for our kids. Family time can help our kids to feel valued and be part of the team. We could create great memories and it helps to form a stronger parent-child relations every time we had this role playing together. Role-playing will also helps us as Parents on the interest of our kids and to build a strong foundation that will helps them up in achieving their ambitions.