Deborah Johnson Wood
A unique toy store in Grand Rapids' Eastown has relegated pretend play back to where it probably originated – in the minds of children.
The Pretend Store, 1503 Lake Drive SE, promises to be a new experience for children and adults alike – there are no miniaturized play sets; everything in the store is the real thing.
"We have pretend tea sets and picnic sets, but all they're all made from real cups, real dishes, real napkins – not small and miniature but from everything that looks like your mother's kitchen," says Stephanie Jazwinski. Jazwinski and her mother, Jane Podolak, are partners in the endeavor.
The mother-daughter team creates every play set themselves from gently used items, and wraps them in ribbons or rope to eliminate the waste encountered in traditionally packaged toys.
Jazwinski came up with the idea to use adult-sized "real" items from watching her own four children play. She says her idea to re-use items came from her conviction that society needs "to reduce our waste."
Besides kitchen and tea sets, the store has adult-sized dress-up clothes, jewelry, hats and glove and even a dressing room where kids can don their fashions.
Other kits include bath-time kits, teacher kits, culturally diverse books with hands-on learning toys and "Reinvention Kits" containing glue, recycled materials, a toy car and a bear.
"You can build a garage for your car or a house for the bear," Jazwinski says. "Kids can use the kits to create the next ArtPrize winner. One child built a boat and brought it back to show us.
"It's learning to pretend again," she says. "The kids get it right away. They come in and play with the stuff right away. It's a way to teach them they don't have to buy new things to have them be of value."
Source: Stephanie Jazwinski, The Pretend Store
Deborah Johnson Wood is development news editor for Rapid Growth Media. She can be contacted at [email protected]. Development News tips can be sent to [email protected].