I'm Playing Along at Childhood 101

Christie at Childhood 101 has created "We Play", as a special part of her great blog. It's a weekly link up where people can share their play experiences and ideas. I think it's a wonderful idea and I'm glad to be a part of it.

Christie says in her post introducing the idea that she believes play is a child's 'work'. I absolutely believe that too. It's what they do to grow, learn and develop. It also gives them a sense of purpose and helps them to work out their place in the world, just to mention a few of it's benefits.

But, as parents, I also believe it's kinda our 'work' too. When we bring these wonderful, sweet beings into the world, it's our job to care for them, to love them and to help them grow. So, it's our work and responsibility to take play seriously, to encourage it, allow time for it, to value it and nurture it and to advocate it's importance at every opportunity.

So well done Christie and everyone else who is getting involved. Here is my favourite play experience from our house this week.



What's going on here?

I made these 'roads' last year sometime. They usually live outside, but with the weather being so cold and wet here in Melbourne at the moment, I've let a few outside toys come in. This has given these roads a new lease on life. They have been used as roads/ramps/bridges and platforms leading down from our stairs.

The kids have put various things underneath them as support (you can see a couch cushion here) and have used small and large cars, animals and trains with them.

These two humble pieces of wood have led to many discussions about scientific ideas (physics mostly) and how to solve problems. These discussions have naturally arisen as the play has gone along and my two don't even really realise the learning that is going on.

You see, big cars don't drive so well on the narrow pieces of wood, so their configuration needed to be modified for that. Some cars veer off, so that needed to be fixed with some angle adjustments. Sometimes Ed wants the cars to go fast, other times slow and again, modifications need to be made. He has solved all of these problems on his own or with a bit of help from his big sister and while doing so has cemented a foundation for scientific learning later in his life.

All the while, the kids have been strengthening fine motor skills while moving the objects around, building on language skills while talking to each other about what might happen, what has happened and how things need to change. Not to mention working on social skills as use of equipment is negotiated and conflicts are resolved.

So, two pieces of wood sanded and painted equals lots of learning and lots of fun.

Come over and play at the 'Childhood 101' 'We Play' link up

Ed's Creative Space

I ventured into Ed's room the other night to do a bit of a tidy up and found the usual suspects - random train tracks, cars and trains strewn all over the floor. As I looked more closely, however, I found a little haven of calm, organisation and in the end intrigue as I stumbled across a game he had set up with his Thomas trains.




In the middle of Ed's room I have a large white, wooden toy box, that his garage and train sheds are kept on. I set up this space as a place for him to organise his own play and carry out his games without them being a great big mess all over the floor. He has access to it all the time and his trains and cars are kept in small suitcases at the bottom of the toy box. He can take himself there and start playing with out any intervention from me. Stumbling upon his Thomas game the other night made me remember why I had provided this space in the first place and just why these areas are so important to children.

Looking closely, you could see how intricate and involved his play had been. Each train had specific, matching carriages. Some trains were in sheds, others were lined up, some were facing each other, clearly involved in conversation. You could almost hear the busy station at work, things looked so animated.



I decided not to pack this scene away for the time being. There is nothing worse than having your creativity and momentum stifled by packing away something you're in the middle of and there is so much learning and development going on in this sort of involved play - memory and recall, language, fine motor, problem solving, organisation, empathy, social interactions, just to name a few.

I'll keep my eye on the play and when it gets messy and seemingly disorganised, I know he will be done with it and it will be time to pack it away, but for the time being, the Island of Sodor is alive and breathing in Ed's bedroom!

Thomas Town

My boy just loves Thomas the Tank Engine, but what 2 year old doesn't?? One of his favourite things to do is to "chuff his trains" (as he likes to call it).

With his big sister heading off to school, he's been a little lost (and wanting his mum to play with him ALL the time!)so in an attempt to keep him busy last week, I set up "Thomas Town" in my lounge room. We used the coffee table to set up the tracks for chuffing. I put a small table alongside the coffee table where we put his wooden garage to act as the "fixing sheds". We put a doll's house on the ground just a little way from the action so that the trains could go home to bed and used his other plastic garage as a bit of a playground (it has a long curly "slide"). I added some buttons as cargo that the trains could transport around and pieces of material as blankets for when they went to bed. You should have heard the squeals of delight as we set it all up!!




After taking these photos, Ed got out his sister's toy camera and got all his trains involved in a photo shoot too.



He had so much fun with this and it lasted the whole week. Sure, we had to shuffle Thomas Town around at the end of the evening to find enough room to watch TV, but the hours of uninterrupted play time made it very worthwhile!!