January 9th, 2009 Use your imagination Posted by Melitsa in language, play activities, Sites to visit

Play activities come in all shapes and sizes.

This is a guest post from Tammy Lessick. She’s a mother and someone I’m very glad I’ve met via Twitter. Tammy speaks from the heart.

I am a WAHM of two. I have a five year old girl and a nine year old boy. My son is nonverbal and diagnosed with Autism. Both of my children love doing activities that involve the whole family. Whether it is hiking at the park or sitting at the table with one of our Story Time Felts sets.

My son doesn’t like board games, and he doesn’t like to play with toys. Doing activities, as a family, indoors is limited for us. We have the following choices: painting, felt sets, watching movies and cleaning. My son loves being outside, so most of our family activities involve the outdoors. The park is our favorite place. There are the paddle boats, playground, and hiking trails.

I love the hiking trails because they are both fun and educational. My children learn how to navigate the trails by following the marks on the trees. They learn about different plants and animals. It is also great exercise and the only exercise my son actually gets, except for roller skating.

On the days when we are stuck indoors because of the weather, it is either independent play for my daughter or one of the family activities I listed above. My son will sit and watch movies all day if we let him. I love to take out one of our felt sets and play with my children. I have my own sets for my business and my children have a couple of their own too.

My daughter loves putting the different pieces on the board and telling stories. My son loves to “talk” to me while putting his pieces on the board. He has a dinosaur and an ocean set. We discuss the different animals and he explains to me why he has placed them in certain spots on the board. My daughter loves creating gardens and picnics with my farm set, and she loves telling stories with her “Cottage Classic” and “The Little Engine that Could” set.

It is important that a child is able to be creative. Creativity enhances learning and independence later in life. A child with special needs may require creativity on the parent’s side to bring out that child’s creativity. My daughter has an amazing imagination, while my son needs one-on-one interaction to help bring his out. I have found that the two important things to remember are to gear your activities towards your children’s interests, and to be involved in their activities. These two things are especially important when your children are young.
To read Tammy’s blog or learn more about Storytime felts visit, www.learningfelt.com
Follow her on Twitter: @taless

Technorati Tags: nonverbal, Autism, Story Time Felts sets, play, Creativity

January 6th, 2009 You be the Daddy Posted by Melitsa in Education, Thought of the week

I talk a lot about spending time with your kids in together activities because we often don’t do that enough. I try to show you activities you can try with your little one.

Whilst I write about together activities too much of one thing isn’t good for anybody either. Allow your kids to free play without interference as well.

You be the Daddy and I’ll be the mummy this time. Ok?

Take this so you know what to do. No Daddy doesn’t do that. Wait I’ll show you.

“Boys- it’s time for dinner. You have to clean up” ( said in a pretend gruff voice)

Ok Daddy. < Cleaning up>

Do you remember the stories, dress ups, props you would gather with your friends for your production?  How the story changed and evolved? You scrapped together ideas gleaned from books and your three collective imaginations. When was the last time you let your kids free play without direction or interruption?

I mean really let them play without you instructing them as well. Funnily enough you may have to teach how to do that by giving them short bursts of unstructured time if this is a new idea.

What’s unstructured time? Time where they get to choose their play. They follow an idea. They may involve you or be submersed in their own fantasy world.  Having a lot of free play to a structured family where every moment is accounted for will mean an adjustment for everyone.  They will say, ” I’m bored!” perhaps push a button or three because they don’t know what to do with themselves. But there will come a moment ……..really it does come, when they find something to do.

Then watch,  watch without them seeing if you can, how involved they get in that play.

Free play allows them to make sense of all the inputs they have been receiving via books, media, family & friends. Watching their play gives you an insight into how they are thinking, feeling, and what they believe. It gives them a chance to try out, discard and adapt ideas in a safe environment.

For the many reasons( lack of recess, rampant fear of strangers, abundance of screen time, more formal preschools and early elementary, parents passion for not letting their child loose out to the competition by driving excellence in everything too far) in 2009 kids are not getting enough time to express themselves in free play.

Free play isn’t a waste of time. So many things are happening within that time if we were to just let it.  I’m not an extremist so don’t advocate for allowing free play to get out of hand or remain unsupervised. Adjust for your family but don’t cut it out because of arbitrary reasons. But with the squeeze on free playtime so clearly evident I would encourage you to allow more time for this fundamental skill at home.

You may choose to promote this idea through centers of activity where they rotate through open ended activities; or read them a book under a sheet in the family room. Step away…………and allow them to free play.

Self motivation is a powerful tool to harness. An excellent way to promote growth in this area is through those three words, ” I’m bored!”

What free play have you overheard?

January 2nd, 2009 Have you completed yours? Posted by Melitsa in Education, play activities, Seasonal play, Thought of the week

Happy New Year!

How are your New Year’s resolutions for 2009?

This is the time of year we reflect on what’s go on before and make plans for the future.  We audit our lives. Whilst you’re there making plans for a great 09 consider including a play audit for your children.

• What type of play did you encourage? Should you encourage?
• What opportunities did they have for

a) creative play?
b) outdoor play?
c) unstructured play?
d) unplugged play?

• What did we love doing together?
• What do we want to do more of?
• What didn’t work well for our family?
• Are there activities I want to try?
• How’s our family balance of activities?
• Are they doing age appropriate activities?

After your audit what’s your plan?

Share your ideas with others, discuss and come up with a plan. Where will you put your resolution? Tweet about it, journal it? Whatever you decide  whether to go public or stay private with your resolutions celebrate all the great things you have done and look to the  potential of what you can try to do.

I’ve shared part of our plan below………

*******Our family pledges to do more outside play. We love the idea of it. We go outside with play in mind but whether it’s the kids by themselves or with either one of us parents, we don’t last too long out there. Outside play didn’t happen enough in 08. I think we’d all love more.

Please share your outdoor activities for us as a family or for the kids to try.

Have a playful New Year!

Technorati Tags: New Year’s resolutions, play, unplugged play?