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

Play

I've been inspired by lovely blogs like 'The Imagination Tree' to learn more about how children learn through play. I had to put something together for my coursework about play and thought I'd post it here so I can add to it and adapt it as I go along...

The right to play is a fundamental human right. ‘Play is a freely chosen, personally directed, intrinsically motivated behaviour that actively engages the child’ (Children’s Play Council).  Play underpins all development and learning for young children. Most importantly, in play children learn how to learn. Play teaches them to explore, investigate, develop all important new skills and master and improve existing skills. They develop intellectually, creatively, physically, socially and emotionally. Through play children learn how to problem solve, negotiate, take risks and overcome obstacles. It is through play that children develop friendships and a sense of belonging to a peer group.

The qualities of spontaneity, wonder, imagination, and trust, are best developed in early childhood play. If we allow adequate time for these early skills to become firmly established, the child will be better prepared to acquire the later more sophisticated skills.

Here are some examples of how children learn through play:

·    Gross motor skills are developed by running, hopping, throwing, moving to music, and balancing.

·    Fine motor skills by drawing, cutting, pouring sand.

·    Cognitive skills by matching and sorting toys by colour, from water to land animals, by listening and following directions.

·     Social skills through interactions with other children through play and listening to stories and acting out stories.

·     Language development through interactions, listening to and singing songs.

By observing children at play we gain understanding of who they are and what they can do. We learn a lot about their personalities, feelings and temperaments. We can find out what the children have already learnt and what they are learning. We can discover: their interests and preferences; how we can support their interests in the setting and how we can extend their interests (and also what changes in their environment could best assist their development); their developmental levels (cognitive and social); how they relate to other children and adults; what strategies children use to attain their goals; which skills the children need to practice; whether the activities planned are at the right level and we can learn how the setting has contributed to the play experience. We learn what experiences they bring to the play, for example, we may learn about a child’s home culture.

      Childcare practitioners observe and interpret children’s behaviours in order to understand them, and in doing so, help them to understand themselves and the world around them. However, children's play is complex, and we need to be cautious about assuming that, because we have observed what the children are doing or saying, we have accessed their ideas and thoughts. We need to be careful that we see what actually happens and not what we expect or want to see.