We talked about what we should be doing with the “home corner” – it is a very popular area at kinder to begin with every year, but there’s a lot more possibilities for pretend play than just that domestic play, and the children had lost interest in the fire station office quite quickly (not dramatic enough?) So we talked about what other shops we had seen on our walks down the street, and there was a lot of interest in making a hairdresser’s. So that’s what we have done. Some lengths of fabric, hand mirrors, old hair dryers, an office counter, lots of phones, a waiting area (complete with magazines and cups of coffee), the sink to wash your hair – our salon has the lot! The appointments sheet has a space for children to write their names in, the phones support conversation or remembered phone-language, and the chat that goes on while customers are being looked after means that children are having lots of meaningful conversations, often with children who they wouldn’t generally play with. (And the boys have played here a lot as well, though more as customers than as hairdressers.)