March 31st, 2009 BecauseBabiesGrowUp playdate Posted by Melitsa in play activities

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Amber Passey is a busy mum of 2 girls, a toddler and a baby. Play activities recently caught up with Amber who runs the successful blog Because Babies Grow Up sharing activities, songs, and ideas to encourage the development of under 5s.

Tell us about your favourite activity , one you like to do with your child

 I love to read with my girls. Sammi has loved books since the beginning and we recently read Charlotte’s Web together over breakfast. It took about 2 months and I don’t know how much she remembers of the storyline, but she did ask for it every time we ate breakfast together so I think she enjoyed it, too. Elli is 4 months old and her favorite book is “I Have 10 Little Fingers” She watches mesmerized and slaps the book if I don’t turn the page fast enough!
Tell us about your child’s favourite book- you read over and over again

Sammi’s favorite book chnges frequently. She currently loves “Nobunny’s Perfect” by Anna Dewdney. It’s great for toddlers because it introduces the concepts of what’s good behavior and what’s bad behavior in such a cute rhyming way.

Tell us about the favourite activity your child likes to do

Sammi LOVES to make cookies. She is in charge of pouring everything I measure out into the mixing bowl. Then she closes the lid down and locks it in place. She has recently developed the skill of cracking an egg and pouring it into a bowl. She’s a chef in the making!

Tell us about the last project you worked on with your child

We made a paper chain together. She helped me cut the paper into strips with the paper cutter then she placed the tape while I was holding each link.
Tell us about your favourite play-activities when you were your child’s age

 I honestly can’t think of anything. All my memories of specific play are once I was in elementary school.

Where do you go on walks locally?

Mostly we just walk the few blocks from our house to the park. If a walk doesn’t end up at the park, Sammi considers the walk a total flop!

What everyday play-activities did your parent do with you? 

 As the child of a single mom, most of my early memories revolve around her education-from high school through a master’s degree-and her successful entrepreneurial adventures. In the middle of that, I remember her creating opportunities for me to play with other children, grandparents, cousins and the like.

Do you set times to play with your child; schedule or do you stop whenever you want? 

We generally do our “going out” activities in the morning. One day we visit the library, another day we participate in a Music Makers group, another we go to the grocery store. I generally work play into whatever we’re doing. When I vacuum she follow me around with her little popper and “vacuums” too. She also like to cook and helps in the kitchen. She even helps do dishes! For her everything is a game. I have to remember to play the game or it gets frustrating that it takes so long! With our little one I try to keep her close by so I can touch and smile at her often. She’s at the stage where she needs floor time to kick her legs and play with toys. I try to build that into the day while I’m doing things with the toddler or other chores on my own.

Tell us about childhood games you remember fondly or not

While my mom was a full-time student we lived with her mom. I remember playing Barbies with my grandma for hours on end. She was such a good sport to keep doing the same pretend play over and over. I also remember that we would play Clue together. Once I figured out why she always won, we started to deal in a ghost player. She still won most of the time!
When was your last play date for your child? What did you do? 

 So far we’ve only had play dates where parent involvement is a must! With young ones there’s a lot of intervening and redirecting. But the kids always remember the happy times and so we keep doing them! I generally have one type of activity for the kids to do. We had boys over last time so we played with the building blocks and everyone enjoyed making towers and knocking them over.

What unstructured play opportunities(= open ended play ideas) do you have in your home?

 All of Sammi’s toys are in the main living area of the house. She can reach her books, dolls, puzzles, and farmhouse + animals. We have blocks and dress-ups in tubs that she can see, but not open (yet) so she asks for them if that’s what she wants. The rule is to put away one tub of toys before getting out another. That usually keeps the toy mess to a minimum and easier to clean up at the end of the day.

It can be a hard transition being at home with a little one or two, juggling everything. Being a parent is just so different to everything that came before. What 3 things would you say/recommend to the mum at home and having a hard time?

I would say 1) find a way to engage your kids in what you love. I love to read and so I introduced books early. Now we each read our own magazine at breakfast unless we read a book together.

2)Find other moms with kids your age and find ways to be social with them-play dates, meetings at the park, community programs, etc. Make sure you get to talk with another adult who knows what you’re going through.

3)Try to get out of the house at least a few times a week. I go stir crazy looking at the walls of my house for more than two days in a row. Even though it’s a lot of work to get two kids plus me ready to leave the house, it’s so worth it in the end. We usually have a great time doing whatever we do and I come home refreshed and ready to tackle the next activity of the day.

Popularity: 15% [?]

March 27th, 2009 Is play on your to-do list? Posted by Melitsa in Articles, Education, Good reads, Thought of the week, play activities

Teach you how to play?

Not such a strange idea.

The Guardian reports of a project by Portsmouth Play Development Project, founded by the Pre-school Learning Alliance and Sure Start. The project, run by a team of play workers who visit families in their home and lead play sessions, aims to encourage parents to bond with their children through play and thus improve early learning and social mobility.

Learn more about this project: The play’s the thing

One of the families highlighted had three children under 5, quite a usual thing now with parents deciding to have children closer together. The time for individual play is harder with the demands of multitasking a mobile family with very different needs all the time. I can relate.

I am glad to see that there is a project that helps parents learn the skills of playing with their children ;teaching them how to play together and individually. We’d like to think we all know how to play but there’s always something new to learn.

We all get caught up in the day to day running of a home. There are so many things to do and it’s easy to become a reactive parent. We know we should play but someone just spilt the milk, the baby needs changing, the kids are fighting,someone else just had an accident, the phone rings, is that the time ?, no one’s dressed to go out, one wants a snack…….. time goes. Tired and frustrated play is the last thing we want to do.

How did our parents do it before us?

We’re tired and busy. If we have children not playing well finding time to look up ‘how to play’ gets pushed down our agenda. Don’t be discouraged.

What’s special about this project? For me, it’s about how the professionals are in our communities teaching us in our situation. They see our life and help us adapt. Books can make us feel like failures and can’t speak to individual circumstances but your local professionals can help. There’s no fanfare or TV show highlighting a family that we can all think- “Phew my kids aren’t that bad.” Instead, there’s a very happy family playing well together and happier children.

So if you are floating out there not sure of what toys to use or avoid, what play should you be encouraging? Here are a few places you should bookmark to shape your play ideas and give you encouragement.

Play-activities

Parent Wonder

Early childhood ( EC) smart

Littlesheep Learning

Planning with kids

KaBoom

The Pica Perspective

Teach me to talk

I’d love to hear where do you learn your play skills? What influences you- magazines, latest crazes? Where do you go to learn more about ways to play?

Popularity: 18% [?]

Technorati Tags: how to play, play workers, play sessions

March 24th, 2009 Create thumb print pictures Posted by Melitsa in Education, Homemade, play activities

So you’re crying out for a calming and focused activity. Here’s one both boys want to do. It’s great on those cold, rainy <<add your can’t go outside reason here.. lol>> It’s an easy set up. Everything is kept in a plastic tub with the markers so the boys can get this out by themselves.

We use butcher paper from Lakeshore Learning so don’t need to worry about using newspaper underneath.

We have ink pads.

Activity: using your finger and thumb in different ways like the tip of your thumb or a fingerprint forefinger you can make all sorts of shapes, people and animals.

We first saw this a few years ago and the BG used it and now his brother loves it. Our first choice was Draw Thumb Things .

Why we liked it?

• small enough to take with us. Our first use was on a plane. ( It comes with a little stamp and we carry wipes anyway so carrying paper was easy)
• the book gave us lots of ideas.
• before they could write letters or their name they would sign birthday cards and Christmas cards with a thumb bug or bee ( really easy and cute)
• themes and ideas were simple enough for the under 5s set and drawing challenged parents.
• You need to have patience, coordination and perseverance. This is a fun easy way to work on these skills because the project is so small you can just start again on the same piece of paper.
• The kids think of their own ideas.
• You get inky fingers and chance to get messy without being told off for it.
• You don’t need mountains of paper. Back of an envelope, shopping list, old receipt or new construction paper all work.
• Great for cards and thank you notes
• creative and encourages storytelling and making up scenes using new thumb people/animals/objects etc.
• The step by step pictures let my child try independently. I didn’t have to be there doing it for him. We could work side by side.

Draw Thumb Things shows you how to make bugs, robots, spider, snowman, aliens and many more

Draw Thumb Animals
we recently bought for another plane trip. This one is a lot harder…….er for me. The BG ( 6) loves it but it’s a little too hard for the MO (3). Dog, moose, bull, monkey, dinosaur, duck  and many more.

They sit for ages side by side stamping and showing their scenes. It’s a fun independent play activity.
We building up for the next in the series Draw Thumb People and Ed Emberley’s Complete Funprint Drawing Book.

Popularity: 31% [?]

Technorati Tags: Draw Thumb Things

March 20th, 2009 Baby Explorers Posted by Melitsa in Education, Good reads, Media, Roundups, Sites to visit, Thought of the week, play activities

My LO ( 7mtns) spends a lot of time rolling, rocking and reaching out to grasp something on the floor. Using his new found freedom to get to where he wants to go. You can almost see how him thinking, planning and plotting; trying to zero in on a new object in the distance then plot his path to it with plenty of pit stops, distractions and ‘helpful’ siblings along the way. Steam is coming off that head the amount thinking going on in there.

Since he didn’t come with elastic legs or wheels that would restrict his mobility anyway. He’s happiest right now moving at his own pace, getting used to these stronger muscles, mouthing what he finds and building up his sensory bank or knowledge about how things look, feel, taste, smell and sound. He gets little hits of sensory stimulation. Too much of everything is totally overwhelming to a baby as it is too us.

What treasures does he find?

• a lift the flap book
• wooden block
• Set of teething rings
• sunny patch from a nearby window. How the light changes and the area is warm.
• stain on the carpet….opps
• soft toy
• Silky Superman cape….thanks bro’
• metal teaspoon
• cushion left from the pretend wall of his sibling
• window to look out
• …..er fluff and things we don’t see but they find
• chair leg
• Breeze on his face and a fluttering curtain
• Castle top
• Burp cloth
• Shadows on the floor

He’s content. When he fusses, we try a new area.

Why would you want to hinder this movement phase by giving him elastic legs that give him one thing to do that he has very little control over? Why would you take him from self exploration ( don’t we learn better when we are self motivated?) and enclose him in plastic ( to make him safe-granted) that allows him to propel himself around. Under aged driving with a child with poor muscle control…..hmmm doens’t sound good for anyone there.

Trapping a mobile child in a station to play doesn’t seem right either. My LO loves to move so I can see him becoming very frustrated being trapped. The play items are brightly coloured and plastic ( over stimulation and tasteless). As a play item they do little else than the one thing; be it spin, make noises or five things at once etc.  Once you’ve seen it do that the next 400 times will be the same….

We use a Bumbo for snack and meal time. He’s had no need, yet for distraction to feed. When it happens he’ll have a high chair with a tray. There are plenty of safe places for me to leave him that allow him freedom of movement whilst I nip to the loo, answer the door, rescue a lost toy for his brother.

When he’s tired he lays right where he is and takes a two minute rest. Then he’s off again.

Self generated play- independent play- play that teaches through exploration and discovery. Controlling their bodies is a developmental skill they can only master with plenty of opportunities for appropriate play. He’ll be ready soon enough to sit and engage but right now that’s when he finds something interesting.

Baby push ups and beached fish impressions are necessary and needed and it is play.

Play’s purpose isn’t to entertain but discover and engage especially at this age.

Forget the TV- The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends, No TV for under 2. But there’s BabyTV and Educational DVDs marketed to your child. Do you believe what’s on the box? Advertising and marketing or what respected Pediatricians who study and know babies tell us. Your choice.

I believe there’s plenty of other things to do with the under 2 child anyway before we need to use TV or DVDs, apart from the free activities in the email from this site .

There are lots of other views about TV

Educational TV time for babies won’t create a genius child

TV for Babies: Does It Help or Hurt?

no tv for under 3
…Well the LO  is rolling out of sight and it looks like he’s heading for the Thomas train track his brothers have so lovingly built so I best divert him before World War III breaks out.

What do your LO do for play at this age that puts them in charge of their play? I’d love to hear.

Popularity: 39% [?]