Nanny Agency Jobs How-to / checklist

In pretend play, the child may assign you a character before you understand the setting. You might be a visitor, a sleepy creature or someone waiting for an imaginary delivery. Begin with the role you have actually been offered. You can ask for the missing detail without supplying the whole story.

Head Start's make-believe guidance describes imaginary uses of objects and encourages adults to follow children's interests. The scenes below show how that can look with familiar, family-approved toys, paper and spoken imagination.

Accept the character before inventing a plot

A small question such as “Where does my visitor wait?” helps you enter an existing scene. A larger proposal, such as announcing an emergency, may replace it.

Fictional example: Nia places a toy bear beside a sheet of paper and tells her nanny, Dev, “You're the person who lost the moon.” Dev is tempted to launch a space adventure. Instead, he says, “I've come to ask about the moon.”

Nia points to a place beside her. Dev sits there. She explains that the bear keeps lost things, but the moon is too large for its drawer. Dev now has enough information to respond within her invention: “Then I'll describe it to the bear.” Nia gives the bear its answer herself.

Dev does not need to know where this will end. His character has an immediate purpose and Nia still owns the explanation.

Give a prop the meaning the child chose

If a familiar toy becomes something else in the story, use its pretend meaning while the game is underway. You can still keep real objects within their usual use boundaries.

In Nia's scene, the paper becomes a window through which the bear checks the sky. Dev does not fold it into a rocket. When Nia turns it over and says the window is closed, he treats that as part of the scene: “I'll wait until the window opens.”

A missing prop need not become a shopping task. Nia wants a bell to announce the moon's return. Dev asks whether they need a real object for this part. Nia chooses to say “ding” herself. The sound becomes her signal, and Dev listens for it.

The practical distinction is between helping the chosen action happen and designing a better-looking set. An imaginary bell can do the first without requiring the second.

Make your addition easy to refuse

Sometimes a child asks you to contribute. Offer one idea, leaving space for a different answer.

Fictional example: Nia asks, “What did the moon leave behind?” Dev says, “Maybe a very long shadow.” Nia replies, “No, its hat.” Dev accepts the hat. He does not argue that moons have shadows or explain why his suggestion was clever.

He can continue from the accepted detail: “I'll carry the hat until the moon arrives.” That response gives his character a job without introducing several new characters, locations and problems.

If you notice yourself doing most of the talking, pause your character. Let the child supply the next event. Your dramatic voice can be quiet and brief; keeping the scene alive does not require a performance that fills every silence.

Pause the fiction when the players disagree

An imaginary rule and a real disagreement are different things. If another child joins, step outside the characters briefly when needed to make participation understandable.

Fictional example: Nia's sibling Ari wants to be the bear. Nia says the bear is hers. Dev says in his ordinary voice, “You both want to speak for this bear.” He asks whether there is another character Ari wants to introduce. Ari chooses to be the moon's neighbor. Nia agrees, and the game resumes.

That invented resolution is one possibility, not a guaranteed script. If neither child accepts the proposed arrangement, avoid announcing agreement on their behalf. The scene can pause while you use the family's usual approach to helping them settle a disagreement.

End your role without deciding everyone else's ending

When your participation must stop, tell the child what is changing. “I need to stop being the visitor now” is clearer than suddenly making the moon disappear forever.

In the fictional scene, Dev tells Nia that his visitor can leave a message with the bear. Nia dictates: “Please return your hat.” He repeats the message, and she decides that the bear will remember it. No photograph, elaborate display or finished storybook is necessary.

On another day, Nia might begin with a different setting entirely. You can recognize a familiar character without insisting on continuity. The child may want to revisit yesterday's invention, change one detail or start again. Listen for today's story before performing yesterday's part.

Sources