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Dress up Game Ideas to Play With 3 Year Olds

Many young children enjoy dressing up and playing make-believe games. By the age of 3, many children will be able to put items of clothing on by themselves and will enjoy practicing this new skill. Although children of this age are usually not ready to take part in games with complex rules they are developing lively imaginations which they can be encouraged to explore with some simple direction. At this age, children often welcome the involvement of a parent or other adult in their make-believe games.

Teddy Bear Hospital
- Have your child dress up in a doctor or nurse's outfit. Have her use an old white button-up shirt as a lab coat for a doctor's outfit, or sew a red cross onto a white apron and bandana for a nurse. Ask her to lay her dolls and teddies out on the floor and pretend they are in the hospital. Use a toy doctor's kit to take temperatures, listen to heartbeats and give injections. Use real bandages to patch up pretend injuries. Children of this age are often fascinated by medical procedures and will love taking charge of their patients.
Little Chef
- Have your child dress in a chef's outfit and pretend to be cooking in a restaurant. He needs an apron and a chef's hat. Let him use real kitchen equipment such as plastic bowls and wooden spoons to act out making the food. Play along by acting as the customer in his restaurant. Let him take your order and serve up your pretend food. Plastic play food is the ideal prop for this game. By the age of 3, your child will have had plenty of time to observe you in the kitchen and will enjoy mimicking your actions.
Space Mission
- Use large, cardboard boxes and packaging items to do some junk modeling and build a pretend spaceship. Dress in white or silver clothes and make silver capes from a length of fabric. Join in the role play and pretend to be astronauts blasting into space on a mission. Do a countdown. Encourage your child to imagine the planet you are landing on and describe it. Make a cape for teddy and take her on a space mission, too. At 3, many children love building imaginary toys from boxes and this game extends the play value of the item they have built.
Cowboys and Cowgirls
- Dress up with your 3-year-old in cowboy style, wearing jeans, plaid shirts, neck scarves and cowboy hats. At this age, children will enjoy being dressed in the same style as you. Pretend to round up his teddies and herd them to a new field. Make a pretend campfire with real twigs and small branches and pretend to cook plastic sausages over it. Sing campfire songs together.

Kids Games