July 25, 2011

E's Restaurant

Requires advanced preparation:  Yes

Supplies required:
Play food
Camera
Paper

Additional optional supplies:
Play plates/silverware/cups (or you could use real items)
Calculator or play cash register
Fake credit card
Something to put the "bill" in, such as an old checkbook holder
Tray
Contact paper to laminate the menu (or you can go to a copy store such as Kinko's and get it laminated)

About a month ago, I asked E if she wanted to play restaurant.  I described to her what it involved, and she seemed excited about the idea.  First, we gathered all of her play food and some of her play plates.  We then put meals together and arranged them on the plates.  I took pictures of each meal.  I then downloaded the pictures onto our computer and made a menu using Microsoft Word.  I kept it simple, with a basic decription of the meal, a price, and a small picture.  I went through each meal and asked E what the price should be.  As you'll be able to see from the picture, eating at E's Restaurant can be fairly cheap or super-expensive, depending on what you order!  Her ravioli must come with a gold sauce.  I printed out the menu, which was 2 pages.  I printed it out double-sided so it was only one piece of paper.  I then took it to Kinko's to laminate it.  (They have a self-help lamination machine there; I believe the cost per page is $1.95 or something like that; I made two copies of the menu.  It actually didn't end up costing me anything because the Kinko's guy didn't charge me for it.  And no, I wasn't wearing anything tight or low-cut, so I have no idea why he was so nice.  Perhaps it was just laziness on his part.)  Here is the back page of the menu:


After the menus were finished, I showed E how to play.  I was the hostess/server/chef first.  I showed her to a table (which happens to be the only table at the restaurant--it's a little while table she has).  I gave her a menu and asked her what she wanted.  I wrote down her order on a paper tablet.  I then went and got the food and put it on plates.  Our real estate agent gave us a serving tray as a present when we moved into this house, so I put the food on the serving tray and brought it to E.  I think this is one of her favorite things about playing restaurant--carrying things on the tray.  I got her more food (she was apparently very hungry), and then totaled up her order on a calculator and told her how much she owed.

When it was time for E to be the hostess/server/chef, the restaurant was a lot less formal (as to be expected with a 3-year-old!)  She showed me to a table (it was cute listening to her tell me that there was a lovely table by the window, something I had said) and took my order.  She brought me some of the things I asked for, and didn't bring me other things I asked for.  She informed me that she was out of burritos.  Then, awhile later, she brought me a burrito and told me that it had been hiding.  E then just had a great time bringing me a bunch of food on the tray, and the menu part of the restaurant was forgotten. 

We have played restaurant a few times since, and I think it's a great role-playing activity.  It could easily be played with more kids, so there would be more customers, servers, chefs, etc.  It can be as simple or as complicated as you want it to be, depending on the children's ages and/or interest level.  If you already have play food and a camera, then this activity is very cheap.  If you don't have play food, you could use real food.  If you don't have a camera and/or computer and/or printer or don't want to hassle with it, you could just draw/write a menu on a piece of paper. 

Some additional things you could do with the activity that I did not do with E:
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