Too Many Toys = Not Enough Playing!

I have episodes of mad tidying every now and then. Take tonight, TWH came home from work to find that the large, chunky coffee table that occupies the centre of our living room had disappeared after 4 years of being in the same spot! I've not thrown it out (I couldn't- it was bought with my hard earned pennies as a newly qualified teacher from an art gallery in Brighton- in a former life!) I've just relocated it! We need more space and besides, Bee keeps whacking her head on it now that she can crawl.

Anyway, the playroom had been bugging me for several weeks and one day last week I came upon the realisation that it isn't so much a room where we play as a room where we just shove every play thing that we own. First to be culled was the soft toy collection! We have millions of the things- taking up valuable storage space! Next was putting everything into labelled boxes so that Mo Mo can access them whenever she wants without everything being piled into one toy box on top of one another.

 


Ikea boxes with wheels- easy to move around the room.



I also came to the conclusion that the more there is to play with, the less my little girl actually plays! I decided to see what effect having less toys out in the room would have. I put most things away and put out a few key activities/stimuli based on Mo Mo's current interests - she really is 'enveloping girl' when it comes to schemas.





All tidy! And now I have a lovely big wall space to fill too!



Writing basket- Mo Mo has started pre-school and they are doing 'Letter Of The Week' which she has really taken an interest in. The basket has pens and pencils and the little bag inside has cards with her name on and letter cards with the letters of her name to match them. The book is a magnetic letter book from M&S.





Two tea sets- they are so cute, I couldn't decide between them! They are usually in boxes, but actually getting them out has resulted in much more interest in them.





I combined the wooden blocks with a fab little wooden village set in our 'tuff spot'. Behind it, I left lots of space on the window sill for building creations.



A couple of jigsaws that we haven't played with for a while. The animal one makes noises.



A selection of napkins and cloths for practicing folding and wrapping up anything that takes our fancy!



Counting and colour matching penguins.

 



Counting/sorting sensory box. Great little catterpillars,  flowers, leaves and butterflies in different colours. I added some counting books and cards along with a couple of versions of The Hungry Catterpillar, some little bags and a pair of plastic tweezers.



I re-organised the playroom whilst Mo Mo was in bed and so it was all new and exciting for her the next morning. She went straight for the sensory box and started sorting!



After a week of our improved 'less is more'  play room, Mo Mo has been more focussed and played for longer. She has occasionally asked for other, specific toys and has added them to the toys already out when she has been playing. I am now going to add to and change some of the toys, puzzles and games each week and see how we get on. I am interested in finding out more about how to use Montessori methodology in our playroom. I can feel some more research coming on!

Some other lovely blog posts about the 'Less Is More' concept:

Childhood 101

Maria Montessori

Loving Earth Mama

'Princess Tea Party' Sensory Tub!

I've been reading about sensory tubs (or boxes) on various different blogs and felt inspired to try one at home for Mo Mo. I've gone with a general pink theme with a focus on her new porcelain tea set. For the last couple of months, she has been telling people that she's having a 'Princess Tea Party' for her third birthday in November!

What's inside the tub:

• Birthday cards
• Pink pasta (I put dried pasta into a sealed bag with some pink food colouring, shook it up and then placed it on a tray to air dry)
• Pink scarf
• Pink sequins
• Pink plastic glasses
• Spoons
• Cotton wool
• A printed out princess (from Mrs Pancake)
• Wooden cakes
• Pink cloth
• Sparkly pink and purple pom poms
• Pink tissue paper
• A larger pink plastic drinking cup
• A jewellery purse
• A plastic pink ice cube tray
• A handkerchief in a little zippy bag
• A porcelain tea set
• A pink phone

The idea behind a sensory tub or box is that children explore the world through all of their senses (multisensory learning.) The more ways that they can explore the more that children will learn. Sensory tubs  make hands-on exploration of materials accessible to children while containing the mess sometimes associated with it. I guess it's similar to the builder's tray idea, but on a smaller scale for an individual child, rather than groups of children. Interesting textures are put in the box. The box can be themed to relate to your child's interests, the season or something special that is happening. It could, on the other hand, be a selection of random sensory items.

The sensory tub has a base material such as rice. I've put pasta in mine as I just know I'll be finding tiny bits of rice everywhere forever more! Styrofoam peanuts, snow flakes, corn, shells, shredded paper, dried beans or lentils could be used. Spoons and containers are put into the tub for pouring, scooping, measuring etc. Then there are your treasures! So, the 'Princess Tea Party' tub has a small porcelain tea set, a bracelet, an organza bag, some pink sparkly pom poms, sequins and some different pink materials. To add a sense of smell, I have placed a pink cloth with some strawberry essence dropped onto it! Here's a fantastic link of sensory tub ideas from Our Worldwide Classroom so that you can create a new sensory tub each month.

The first thing Mo Mo did with the tub is get each thing out and put it on the floor to see what was in there. "These are like clouds," she said as she took the cotton wool out of the box. Next she put the pasta pieces into the bag and the ice cube tray and arranged the cotton wool balls in a circle on the sparkly foam. The pasta was then put into the little zippy bag and Mo Mo kept saying- "Is that enough?" and "That's too much." She definitely enjoyed opening and closing the zipper. Her interest was kept for about 20 minutes. I have noticed that Mo Mo loves containers. In our tuff spot tray at the moment, we have a selection of boxes and containers of various sizes- some with lids and some without and various bags with draw strings. This has led me to read more into schemas to find out how I can develop Mo Mo's play.