Find a common interest - my two just love to play games with their soft toys. So, I have all they need for their imaginative play games available to them always. That way, they can play as the mood strikes them and cater their play to the interest thay have at the time. They have their school, beds, clothes, food, textas, paper, pens all tucked away neatly in these baskets so they can pull them out whenever they like (without involving me - yipee!)
Like I said, my kids love tehir soft toys, but these baskets could be easily filled with rocks, animals, cars, blocks, rockets or dress-ups.
I like to set things up for them too. Sometimes it can take just 5 minutes to throw an open-ended activity together that the kids will play with for hours.
Our favourites are
Painting
I pour out some colours, put out brushes and a few other painting utensils, paper and a drying rack and leave them to it. Sometimes we use cardboard cut-outs we even like to use canvases sometimes too.
Building
I've written about this before, but just taking a bit of time to set up Lego for 2 or 3 or 4 can make a big difference to how long children will play there. Of course this works well for all types of building materials
Sensory Play
We love water play here, but these containers could just as easily be filled with sand or mud or coloured cornflour and water. Now that the kids are bigger, I'll just pull out the container of water toys and plonk them in the middle. They need a bit more space now too, so I like to give them a couple of different areas to play in. It makes the play a little more elaborate and so keeps them busy for longer.
Dramatic Play
I think it's great to sacrifice a small area of lounge room to make a dramatic play space that can stay set up too. Our favourites are a zoo, a restaurant, a cafe, a doctors surgery a shop and of course, good old home corner! (my apologies for the grainy photos, but you get the idea!)
I'm going to take a little bloggy break for the rest of the holidays. I'll be back on October 10 with another "Play Moment Monday". In the meantime, Happy Playing!
Belinda x
Hi, I enjoyed this story about sensory play. When we were home schooling our two sons, we invented many games, but one that sticks in my mind was the sensory time out bench.
ReplyDeleteYes, I know this doesn't sound much like fun at first. But it was invented by our youngest son. We had used a method of "time out" in the kitchen on a comfy bench. This is where the boys knew as soon as they got right out of hand screaming at me, that they could just go to the bench anytime. It was their opportunity to rethink their behavior.They made the choice most times, we didn't spank or anything. But sometimes I even went and sat on it to collect myself.
Anyway, our youngest was sitting there one day and he had taken some sand paper with him. He was sanding the bench and suddenly said, " Mom, this is cool, I like the bench." My ears perked up because it was said that 'tone' you know they are setting you up for something. I didn't reply. He continued sanding then suddenly announced he had made a new game. He named it the "sanding pad' and pretended to sand away the bad feelings the bench had accumulated from his sitting on it previously.
Thanks for the memory. :-)
Are you coming back, Belinda? x
ReplyDeleteThanks for asking after me. I was just reading your lovely post the other day about the blogging cycle and I could so relate. I think I will be back. Soon xx
ReplyDeleteGreat ideas for encouraging kids to keep playing over the holidays.
ReplyDeleteIsabelle @sportforthought