When I told my kids that they would be creating their own restaurant with real food and customers they were ecstatic, especially about the real food part! Before opening your restaurant find a few willing customers. We are incredibly lucky to have my parents living close by and they were happy to join the fun at our Pretend Restaurant for Kids.
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LET’S CREATE A PRETEND RESTAURANT FOR KIDS!
Prior to opening our restaurant we designed a tablecloth, named our restaurant and designed a sign, created a menu with my parents’ favorite foods, brainstormed our uniforms (Quinn chose white shirts and black pants), and practiced our different roles as hosts and waiters. The kids loved practicing and it added to the excitement.
THE DECOR FOR THE PRETEND RESTAURANT FOR KIDS
We set the stage for a beautiful restaurant experience by using the tablecloth we made, fresh cut flowers with these melted crayon flowers and a restaurant sign.
THE STAFF AT THE PRETEND RESTAURANT FOR KIDS
One of the aspects of a restaurant we talked about was the people who worked at the restaurant. We focused on the managers, cooks, hosts and waiters. My kids all wanted to be waiters and appointed me to take on the rest of the roles. Quinn loved the idea of all of us wearing uniforms. I gave them each a name tag. It was so cute!
Would you believe all of my children were the Employees of the Month? I’m a lucky mama!
THE MENU AT THE PRETEND RESTAURANT FOR KIDS
You can make this menu as fancy or casual as you would like. I talked to my children about how restaurants think about the type of foods their customers would like. My mom had wanted to try my beet pasta and my dad loves our chicken salad so we put those on the menu with grilled cheese and sauteed greens. I created a menu with picture cues.
In order to help Quinn remember the orders I created another piece of paper with pictures of the menu choices with corresponding boxes. Quinn checked the box next to the items ordered. This gave Quinn the independence he craves at 4 years old and aided his success. I helped total up the money values. I kept each item at $1 so that we could focus on 1-to-1 correspondence and simple addition.
And of course even the staff needs time to eat!
Such a great experience! I am sure The Donnelly Kids Restaurant will be open for business again soon!
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