I need at least ten minutes of peace to get Muski to sleep during the day. That means I need ten minutes where the Twinadoes don’t sound like baby elephants on our wood floors, don’t scream at each other at the top of their lungs and don’t come whining to me for something ever 30 seconds. I need an activity that will capture their concentration and keep it for a little while. I need an activity that they can play with together without fighting. I need an activity that they can do on their own without needing my help. The answer??
Set up and imaginative play scene…. in this case DINOSAURS!
Drawing stuff usually lives on these two tables – well it did before Muski became mobile and discovered how much he likes to eat crayons. Recently it has just become a place for junk to pile up so turning it into Dino World seemed like a much better idea and it kept the girls entranced on and off for the better part of a week.
This Dino World uses and old wooden box on top of the table, some bits of sawn up log and other natural bits and pieces as well as a few cut branches from various back yard trees. Oh and not forgetting a handful of plastic dinosaurs, and you’re done.
Imaginative play spaces like this are so easy to set up and you can really engage in whatever your little one is interested in at the moment. At the moment the Twinadoes are loving being chased by a ‘small boy-like raptor’ at kinder – the think this is just about the best game ever (I think if they are enjoying being chased by a boy they must be in love!). That plus a recent trip to the museum means that dinosaurs are high on the list of ‘cool stuff’ in our house at the moment.
I could have used any number of ‘cool’ things for this though – wild animals with various natural material, tubs of water with sea creatures and shells, small people with lots of natural materials for hidey holes. This week the girls are back being super girly girly and we have set up a ‘Fairy Castle’ on the table…
These kind of play scenes were among my most favourite part of teaching preschool. They allow so many different ways to play, so many different ways to learn and best of all so many opportunities to really connect with where a child is at….I miss teaching sometimes but I so love being able to do this for my kids.
What a brilliant idea!!
I guess there are loads of sites with ideas for children’s activities, but I came across this one yesterday and thought there might be some useful ideas there.
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/Home.html
What is it with dinosaurs? I don’t remember being into them myself, but my kids both love them, and love to walk around being t-rexs (sometimes scary, sometimes friendly, and unfortunately screaming and crying is part of the ‘game’).
Anyway great ideas there Kate!
They are FANTASTIC Kate! Oh you can see you used to be a kinder teacher for sure :) I wish I had time to do cool stuff like that with my kids-fortunately they have ace kinder teachers and daycarers to do it with them, but still..maybe a weekend project some time :)
I have tagged you on my blog btw :)
What great ideas! I love the use of natural materials too … will have a look for some on our next walk to the park.
They look so amazing Kate – I am sure you would have got more than 10 minutes. My little ones would play for ages. Thanks for the inspiration.
We are so doing this tomorrow!!!! THANK YOU!!!