It's all about "Doll Washing" which is a great fun thing to do either outside or at bath time, with lots of learning opportunities involved. It's also especially relevant to young children who have just had a baby brother or sister come into the home.
Em took great care of her baby dolls when Ed was born. She fed them when I fed Ed, bathed them, changed them, read to them and loved them, while I was doing the same for her new baby brother. It not only kept her busy and out of mischief, it gave her an opportunity to play out what she was seeing me do, which helped her to process what was going on. It also helped her to understand the love and caring required for a new baby and helped her to feel she was being important and included too. It was easy to interact with her while she was alongside me and we could talk about what we were doing together.
Here is a photo of us sharing bath time at the kitchen sink. Ed was only about 4 weeks old.
Congratulations on the article :)
ReplyDeleteThe kids at preschool love this activity as well. In the past I have also asked preschool mums with a young baby to come in to preschool and give their babies a bath there - and then this inspires a whole lot of dramatic play with the dolls.
I love this. This is something that I provide across all age groups {inside and outside} to promote self-help skills, social skills, fine motor development, emotional skills and their imaginations!
ReplyDeleteI have actually written a post on this, as it was something that I planned during one of my practicums. It's in the birth to twenty-four month experiences.
What a great idea! I've often wondered how Princess will go if we ever had a second child, whether she would be jealous and demonstrative, or whether she would want to constantly be helping, and then possibly in my way a little. She is now 3.5. She is likely to be 5 before we have another one, if we do, and I think giving her her own baby to care for may help. That, and starting school, of course!
ReplyDeleteJenny - thanks, it's always exciting when an article comes out. I would always ask mums to come into to bath their new babies too. It's great to see how interesting pre-school kids find this. Em and Ed still love to watch friends bath their little ones.
ReplyDeleteMiss Carly - I will have a read of your post. It's amazing how much learning and developing comes form something so simple and easy to do.
Amanda - A new baby is such a shock to the system for any young child. Anything you can do to help her (and you!) will be greatly appreciated I'm sure
I took my 4 year old to have a bath at the kinder he now attends when he was a baby and the kids just loved it.
ReplyDeleteRecently we actually filled up our bath and the 4 year old washed all his big trucks in it!
How I wish I can also join that class. I really want to learn more about parenting. I think I will be visiting this blog more often for more post like this.
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