NurtureStore

Use the linky below to add your post to the Play Academy

Our summer holidays are drawing to a close and my Little is starting school on Monday (oh my!). I feel very strongly that our play should keep going. B is moving up to the Juniors and although her school offers are great curriculum including play, art, music, drama and experiments I think it’s inevitable that her lessons will become more and more about schooling. September always feels like the start of the year to me, so I’m keeping in mind my resolution to make 2010 our Year of Play, and we’ll certainly be limiting our after school clubs and weekend commitments to allow plenty of time for playing. How do you feel about finding a balance between schooling (or home educating) and play?

I’m looking forward to getting even more inspiration from your Play Academy ideas this week – hope you’ll add a link.

1. Add your post to the Linky below. Remember to link to the individual post rather than your homepage. If you are not a blogger please visit the NurtureStore Facebook page and share your photo there.

2. Go and visit some of the other blogs on the Linky. Leave a comment and say hi. Get ideas. Tell them you’re visiting from the Play Academy.

3. Add a link back from your own post to this Play Academy – your readers can then come and get ideas too. You can use the Play Academy badge if you like.(Grab the code from the column on the left.)

4. Come back next Friday and swap some more play ideas. The next Play Academy linky will be Friday 10th September.

Sunday 29th August 2010

Two girls, not a care in the world, playing in the garden and enjoying the sunshine.

Sand, flower pots, matchsticks, shells.

On the same day three mummy bloggers, Sian, Josie and Eva flew to Bangladesh with Save the Children to see what life is like for children living there. Please take a moment to visit the Save the Children site and find out about the campaign.

Makes me think what childhood my girls would be having had they by chance been born somewhere else.

This post is shared with the Gallery at Sticky Fingers which this week is taking a snapshot of life on August 29th 2010

This week’s #goplay Twitter Tips are all about un – toys : the favourite things to play with which you won’t find in the toy shops, the alternative to plastic, battery-operated toys.

#goplay Twitter Tip #1  Consider what makes a great toy: fun, stimulating, open-ended, multi-use, still interesting as the child grows

#goplay Twitter Tip #2 What’s an un-toy? Natural materials & everyday objects: an alternative to plastic, battery-operated, one-purpose toys

#goplay Twitter Tip #3 I find children play longer & with more concentration with un-toys: they’re versatile & offer more play opportunities

#goplay Twitter Tip #4 Some un-toys we love: sticks, boxes, shells, pots & pans, wooden spoons, bottle tops, button, fircones, food packets

#goplay Twitter Tip #5 There’s no ‘right way’ to play with un-toys: let your child’s imagination decide & watch each child play differently

#goplay Twitter Tip #6 Did you know the stick and the cardboard box have both been inducted into the Toy Hall Of Fame? http://www.museumofplay.org/nthof/toys/index.php?toy=cardboard_box

#goplay Twitter Tip #7 A cardboard box can become a train , a story tent or a house

#goplay Twitter Tip #8 How about collecting some pebbles this weekend and making a set of story stones?

#goplay Twitter Tip #9 How about providing some un-toys for dressing up? fabric, scarves, ribbons so children can create their own costumes?

#goplay Twitter Tip #10 Why not try some un-toys & see what your child thinks: have fun, #goplay, go green, be creative, use your imagination!

*These #goplayTwitter Tips are tweeted each Friday at 8.30pm – follow @nurturestore or the #goplay hashtag to share

View the Twitter Tips on playdough, water play,  travelling with kids junk modeling and encouraging reading and writing

Happily shared with…

The summer holidays are such a wonderful opportunity to bring some more play into our children’s lives. Even if you have pre-schoolers or are home educating, this time of year just seems to bring with it an added element of play. So over the summer NurtureStore is celebrating by launching a Play Academy to showcase fantastic ways to turn learning into fun.

Even more excitingly, we have the great privilege of linking up with Tara from Sticky Fingers, who runs an amazing photography project called the Gallery.  Each week Tara provides a prompt idea and bloggers around the globe produce a picture giving their interpretation of the theme: sometimes beautiful, sometimes moving, sometimes funny. This week Tara is joining with us and dedicating the theme of the Gallery to: Playtime!

So, will you join in?

To enrol in the Play Academy all you need to do is grab your kids and go play. Indoors, outdoors, imaginary play, messy play, small world play, building towers, building dens, drawing pictures, throwing balls – it’s up to you and your children. Take a picture, add a few words and then come back here on Wednesday 4th August and join the first Play Academy party by posting a link here, and also over at the Sticky Fingers Gallery. It doesn’t matter if you’re not a master photographer, or have never joined the Gallery before. In fact you don’t even need to be a blogger as you’ll be able to link up through the Facebook page. What is important is that you have a passion for play to share! (And if you have, you can grab the Play Academy button from over there <—)

Come and celebrate play, share ideas and inspiration.

The A – Z of Kids Play & Learning

A is for…. Active Learning

I once sat in on a pre-school session where the teacher was introducing a group of eight 3-year-olds to the idea of mixing colours. She had two pots of paint, one red and one yellow, and was showing the children how combining the two would make orange. Messy fun, sensory play swirling the colours together, and the magical realisation that they’re created something new by stirring the colours together. Except the children weren’t allowed to touch the paint themselves. They were being asked to sit around a table and watch the teacher having all the fun. What a missed opportunity to let the children do some active learning.

Active learning means learning by doing – by exploring and investigating, being spontaneous and engaging in purposeful play. It’s the way children learn best. They are naturally curious and inquisative, so rather than see our job as giving children information we can look for ways to help them learn and discover for themselves. No hot-housing, no flash cards, no sitting still and being taught, but rather using their everyday experiences to learn: at the breakfast table, in the bath, in the garden, on the way to play group. By letting children persue their interests with our support, they gain a positive attitude to learning. They enjoy learning, they gain confidence and independence and they aquire new skills.

Here are three ideas you could use this week to support your children in their active learning:

1. Materials: Can you provide some materials, toys or objects which are ‘open-ended’ so you child can use them in a variety of different ways in their play? How will you child play with some wooden blocks, yoghurt pots, fir cones or shells? Let them use their creativity and see where their imagination takes them.

2. Freedom: Can you let your children choose how to play this week? Are they able to access different toys / materials to include in their play — perhaps by having it on low, open shelving or in toy boxes, so they can include different objects in their games? Can they have ‘permission’ to play their way, taking toys in to the garden, using jigsaw pieces as food in their ‘cooking’ or wearing a tambourine as a hat? Can they spend the whole morning rolling a ball down a slide (and experimenting with gravity and rotation as they play?)

3. Support: Can you play along with them and talk to them about what they’re doing? Can you help them solve problems when they meet an obstacle to their play? Can you plan another opportunity for them to explore their interests further?

As an example of active learning, taking a child’s interest and supporting it to provide more fun and learning you might like to have a look at our ‘Ducks’ post.

What could you play this week?

How green are your kids?

April 22nd 2010 is the 40th anniversary of Earth Day and an excellent opportunity to give your home an eco-audit and ask yourself how environmentally-friendly is your play. Following the ‘reduce, re-use, recycle‘ mantra is an easy way to make simple and effective changes to create an eco-home.

Here are some ideas you might like to try.

REDUCE

• How many toys do you really need? Instead of a house full of more and more plastic, concentrate on a small selection of ‘open-ended’ toys that can be used in lots of different ways: wooden blocks, stacking cups, small world people & animals.
• Borrow rather than buy new things. In addition to borrowing books from your local library how about borrowing from your nearest toy library too? The USA Toy Library Association or the  National Association of Toy and Leisure Libraries in the UK can help you find your nearest branch.
• You could also start a toy swap amongst your friends to pass on items as your children grow or lose interest in particular toys.

RE-USE

• How about re-purposing items around the house and garden for your children to play with? My girls love playing with pots and pans, fircones, sticks, pebbles, hats and scarves, blankets… Zero airmiles, zero packaging, free and full of opportunities for creative play.
• In the UK you could access Scrapstore, a charity which collects safe business waste for re-use as craft and play supplies.
• You can promote ‘going green’ in your children’s pretend play too. I love it when my girls are playing shops and I hear them saying ‘I don’t need a plastic bag thank you, I’ve brought my own’.

RECYCLE

• Saving yoghurt pots and egg boxes to make a craft box is an essential in a crafty home, and gives your household waste a second life. How about including tin foil, old wrapping paper and chocolate wrappers too.
• You can collect all the off-cut bits of paper and cardboard after a craft session and save them in a special ‘collage’ box to use in future projects instead of sweeping them straight into the bin.
• If you’re anything like us you’ll have a constant demand for paper to draw on. You can open up cereal boxes and use the reverse-side of letters instead of always buying new.

What other things do you do to promote Earth-friendly play? I’d love to hear your ideas.

Happily shared with Backyard Mama

How do you feel about mess? Do you let your children have free rein around the house to play with what they like? To pull all the cushions of the sofa to make a boat? To use all their bedsheets to build a den? To take pasta from the kitchen cupboards to use in their pretend kitchen?

And how do you feel about them playing in the garden? Do you let them dig? Make mud pies? Pick up worms? Fill the watering cans to make a swamp? Pick leaves and flowers to ‘bake’ with?

Do you give them messy materials to play with? Play dough? Paint? Felt tip pens? Sand? Glitter?

Someone told me recently that they’d never let their children play with playdough. And someone else commented that they spend so much time cleaning already that they don’t want to encourage their kids to make even more mess. This got me wondering how everyone else views messy play. I wonder if you encourage this kind of play at home or do you keep it just for pre-school? Do you let babies and toddlers get stuck in or do you reserve it for your older children? Do you think messy play is beneficial or educational or just for fun? And what do your children think about messy play – do they love it or loathe it?

I’m not looking to criticise anyone’s approach, I’m just genuinely interested to see what the opinion is on messy play. Will you share your thoughts and tell me what you think?

2010 The Year of Play

Wordless Wednesday: Picnic in a Treehouse

What are your kids playing today?

So here we are on 1st January and, after helping the children with theirs yesterday, I’ve been thinking about what resolutions I’m making myself, especially about how I can nurture my family this year. Over at notimeforflashcards Allie has been rounding off an inspirational year with a review of her most popular posts from 2009, and in number one spot she’s sent out a call to ‘Let them play‘. This got me thinking that letting children play is really the most important thing we can do to nurture their learning. I believe children learn best by doing (not just watching or listening) and giving them the space to be creative and explore is vital. Filling their weeks with non-stop activities isn’t the way I want to spend 2010.

So, here are my suggestions for making 2010 the Year of Play in your home:

1. Make an enabling environment. If you can arrange the play space in your house so that your children can access toys independently it means they are able to be in charge of their own play and use their imagination. We have open shelving in our play-room, with toys sorted into baskets with photos on to show what’s inside. This means that if my daughter is playing with her toy dog and needs some wooden blocks to build a kennel she knows exactly where they are to include in her play.

2. Provide  open-ended resources. I like to provide different props to spark play ideas and I favour open-ended resources. So I’d rather give them wooden blocks, fir cones and sea shells,  and different scarves and fabrics which they can use in anyway they want rather than a ‘toy’ which runs on batteries and only does one type of thing when you press a button.

3. Let them have freedom to play their way. So, I know that a jigsaw should be put together to make a nice picture but my daughter wants to put the pieces in a saucepan and ‘cook’ them. Is she wrong? Of course not, and if you encourage this child-led play you’re giving you child valuable space to explore what’s important and interesting to them.

4. Sit back and watch. Taking the time to really observe how your child is playing gives a window into what they’re ready to learn. By watching you can find out what they’re really interested in and use that as a springboard for other activities to develop their knowledge and understanding. Maybe they’re spending a lot of time playing with cars and you realise that it’s the circular motion of the wheels that’s fascinating them. You could then offer them some balls and a ramp to explore, or make a windmill together. Children don’t learn things in isolation but instead link together information and experiences. So if your child has been playing with a toy farm, combining this with a visit to a real farm, making a tractor from a big cardboard box and reading stories and singing songs songs all about animals is a very effective way to nurture their learning.

5. Sneak in the English, maths and science. Of course it’s important to incorporate these in your child’s world but this shouldn’t be instead of play. Therefore, your job is to ditch the flashcards  and in their place include numbers and letters almost without the children realising. If they’re playing ‘shops’ you can make an ‘Open / Shut’ sign for the door and price tags for the produce. When you’re having a teddy bears’ picnic you can count how many plates you need. Adding different sized funnels and buckets to the sandpit or at bathtime lets them explore different volumes. And growing a sunflower in the garden is a great way to introduce biology.

How about you? What will your focus be for nurturing your children in 2010 – I’d love to hear your plans.

Happily shared with ABCand123′s Let’s Get Organised