On the 24,009th snow day (it seems like a lot, right?), Milo asked to set up a shop in our dining room. We really got into it, and by the end of it, he and Emil had spent a good three hours organizing, setting up, making play money and a cash register with a real pull-out drawer out of shoe boxes, and playing shop. I was seriously impressed by Milo’s focus on this task; the meticulous attention to detail, the careful cutting and designing each dollar (even a 17 dollar bill!), and the organization of his little store. He was pretty proud of it! And when Oliver got home from preschool later that afternoon, he joined in on the fun.
$20 for eggs? I don’t know about these prices…
I helped make the signs while Milo named the prices.
The developmental stages of Milo and Emil are not quite complimentary all the time; Milo strives for organization and order and has specific ideas of where he wants things. Emil fixates on mimicking behaviors he has seen his older brothers and parents do, while not yet having the fine motor skills suited for those behaviors (which results in chaos and destruction). There was only so much redirecting Milo could do before he became really frustrated by Emil’s attempts to take everything from his shop and throw it into the living room. So…
… we set up Emil’s Toy Shop across the way. 
Once Emil had his own shop (and space) to take care of, he respected Milo’s hard work and everyone was happy. They took turns shuttling back and forth between stores with the shopping cart, buying and trading items. Emil kept his prices high “One hunned doww-ahs peese” and kept Milo cracking up. Plus, his “cash register” turned out to be an empty box of graham crackers because Milo insisted, The robbers will never suspect it’s there!
And for all you would-be robbers out there, Emil’s packing a hammer just in case you show up to try to take his “hunned doww-ahs.” Consider yourself warned.
So fun! I love these projects that can happen with a little age … Complex projects. When you have to make your own dollar bills that’s getting into it.
I just love this! I laughed out loud when I got to Emil’s toy shop, that look on his face- too much! W’s preschool does a lot of these play environments (though not as lovely as Milo’s). They had a restaurant, a ticket booth and ‘train’, now it’s some kind of mail operation… the kids really seem to adore that role playing. Adorable.
How fun! I think the eggs must come from royal chickens…you know, the perfect kind. 😉
But, the hammer in the toy store was the highlight! Harrison’s kind of store. haha!
Hey – thanks for stopping by my place, mostly because it led me back over here.
Years ago – maybe 12-13 years – we made all kinds of signs for our godson. He was little – like 3 or 4 – and he constantly made shops like this. We took scrap wood and painted Closed and Open signs, as well as various business signs so he could change things out as he wished.
Hope our snow days are behind us. I have a co-worker with kids (most likely) in your same district, and they missed so much. We’ve been lucky with our school to go despite the cold and the snow.
I’m ready for spring.
This is such an amazing creative project! Must have been sad to put the shops away later. I remember so many activities like this when my siblings and I were kids…making our room into anything from a haunted house to a spaceship to a candy land, and of course a schoolroom. These boys are going to have the best rich memories!
I was do interested in hearing about the different developmental stages of the boys. Now that I have two I find myself very much looking forward to them being able to play together but also wondering how that will work sometimes, like when the baby can crawl but not walk yet. It will be fun to see how they work out the differences!
the way your boys play is quite inspiring.