The Balancing Game

Yesterday I taught Eliza to walk on the wood around the playground. I figured it would be a fun way to improve her balance. I had no idea she would become obsessed. She wanted to go around and around and around. She was so determined it cracked me up. I shot this video with my phone. Sorry for the poor quality.

Where We Play!

Half Pint Pixie shared Little Pixie's play areas the other day and I have decided to show you all where we play. Eliza does have some toys in her room, but for the most part we play downstairs. I am really trying to teach Eliza to clean up one thing before moving on to another. She has a habit of spilling blocks/balls/etc. on the floor and then running off to play with something else. I am starting to realize that by being so relaxed about her making a mess I am not teaching her to respect her things. I am not crazy about being clean but she is old enough to start learning how to take better care of her things. There must be a happy medium! I have found that having less is more when trying to teach about clean-up. I also like to rotate toys weekly so I don't have too many things out at once.

Her E sized table is great for tons of different activities!

Here is her little house, dog and vacuum.

Book Nook!


The shelves where we keep her toys.



The stuffed animal basket.

We don't really have that many craft supplies yet. She has the recycled crayons I made her, some stamps and some play-doh. She isn't into art that much yet.

I am planning on getting her a wooden kitchen for her second birthday. Also, I am starting to put together a make-believe/dress up box for her. I found some old handbags, a handkerchief and a sun hat so far. I also have my wedding veil I never wore because some man stepped on it and ripped it in Newark airport on the way to Mexico. If you have something you would like to donate to her box let me know.

One of our favorites!

One of my favorite toys for E is her play scarves. What I love is that they are so simple and open ended. She loves them as well and will play with them endlessly.

Here she is in action with her scarves.

and if she gets bored she can find creative uses for their container...

The Importance of Play

Someone sent me a link to an article that they thought I might find interesting for the blog. Usually I pass by these e-mails, but this one had to do with the importance of imaginative play in normal development. It caught my attention and I decided to check it out. If you are interested you can locate it here- The Serious Need for Play. It was actually quite interesting and I found myself nodding in agreement as I read the article.

Now I have a bunch of swirling thoughts so I am going to try and make heads or tail of them.

Having spent time as a teacher I have strong views on the importance of academics. However, in my few short years as a teacher I saw the amount of free play in schools drop dramatically. I saw the elimination of recess in some schools. I also saw Kindergarten teachers totally cut play time from their classrooms. Why? Schools are trying to spend more time teaching academics to keep up, make adequate yearly progress, etc. Very sad.

Kids learn through play. I believe that when you don't allow kids adequate time to be kids- to engage in play that is not defined by rules, parents or teachers, they are stunted physically, emotionally, socially and even academically. Yup! If you want kids to do better in school, they need to play more. This means less time spent being endlessly disciplined, less time on repetitive dittos, less time spent completing homework that has been proven ineffective. Instead, let's get our kids out and playing. And while I am on a roll- let's get the adults out of work an playing more too.

As a teacher I felt like the kids came to me to solve every single problem they had with other students. It is like they couldn't work out anything on their own. They needed an adult to tell them what was right and wrong. My answer usually was, "And what do you want me to do?" I know it sounds harsh but I believed they could probably figure it out on their own if they took a minute to think. I truly believe this results from not enough unsupervised play. When adults step in for every little issue, kids don't learn to figure things out on their own. Here's a thought...picking your nose is gross...and you will figure that out when other kids give you weird looks. Seriously, do we need to tell kids it is gross. It is important to share. Really? You need to tell kids it isn't nice to take toys from other kids. My guess is they will figure it out when nobody wants to play with them anymore.

I remember taking a class on play in college. We watched a documentary on preschool in Japan. What I remember most is that the teachers did not step in when the kids were having a conflict. They let the kids work it out themselves. The kids actually engaged in problem solving without the teacher telling them exactly what to do. Imagine that. Here is an interesting article relating to how discipline in America and Japan differ. This article focuses on how kids in Japan work together to work out problems and do not depend on their teachers.

Kids today spend a lot of time in school like settings. When they are out of school they participate in team sports, classes, lesson, etc. My guess is the other time is spent in front of the TV, computer or a video game.

Whatever happened to just letting kids play and making sure nobody was killing each other?

So this is a jumble and while I am not entirely sure play would solve the social issues I witnessed, I do think it is key component for healthy social development.