Carolyn’s

Play House Mini-News

October 2005

Hi parents,

Here are some smatterings of recent goings-on…

Parallel Play

So much happens when children play alongside each other. One day I was sitting with Matthew at the garage, he intent on making the car elevator go up (slowly) and down (very fast). We were talking about parking places for cars, which prompted me to get wooden blocks to make a ramp. Max, who had been playing with the mailman figure in another part of the room, got two big cylinder blocks and placed the mailman on top. A mischievous glint in his eye gave away a plan to topple the poor guy, and he did… Pretty soon after, Liam got his own two blocks, lighter ones, and found a different way to make them fall down – pretended to sneeze (‘ha – ha – ha – choo’) and down came the blocks!

Active Play

When Matthew went to the upstairs loft, Liam and Zoë marched after to the tune of Following the leader and we all played this game: I sang ‘Matthew’s jumping up and down, up and down, up and down, Matthew’s jumping up and down, all day long’ (to the tune of Sally’s wearing a red dress,’ a favorite snack time song). I pretended great enjoyment at the sound of my own voice and invariably Matthew would plop down (rudely interrupting my singing) and laugh mightily at my reaction to being thwarted. Zoë and Liam caught on very quickly and soon all were jumping, falling and laughing, at my expense of course. Then Matthew climbed all the way up the ladder, touched a star, and with some coaching climbed all the way down. We all cheered and immediately Liam did the same. Then raised the stakes and nimbly jumped from the second level to the mattress below. I asked Matthew if he’d like to try; and he had such a funny reaction. He stood at the edge, not quite ready, and just giggled and giggled! He sat down and slid down that way. By the end of that week he had mastered the big jump, just like Liam…and practiced it over and over and over again.

Music Play

One music time I played Take me for a ride in your car, car on the guitar; we brought out hula-hoops as driving wheels and the song was then about what each child did with his/her hoop. They love to hear their names. We made a tunnel with the hoops and all took turns going through. After our ‘hoop dance’ the children sat inside their hoops for turns playing the guitar. Max’s face lit up at recognizing Old Mac Donald as he strummed and I made the chord changes.

And Liam inspired this musical event. One morning he became fascinated with a feather that had popped out of our couch. Later I brought out a bunch of colorful feathers, threw them in the air and we danced to classical music. The children all found different things to do with the feathers. Zoë picked one up with her toes, which we all had to try immediately. Liam carefully collected a whole big bunch and suddenly threw them all up in the air. We blew, tried to throw and catch, and watched the feathers fly…our very own impromptu feather ballet.

Pretend play

Zoë likes to take the plastic chairs and make a train. She did this one day, and in walked ‘baby Gina,’ whom Zoë invited to come aboard. With hopes of encouraging Gina, I brought Pooh and Arthur dolls to take their seats. As it turned out Gina was more interested in an explore down the hallway, but a little later I spied Zoë singing Eensy weensy spider, hand movements and all, to the captive stuffed animal audience.

Thanks to Max, there has been much dramatic roaring of lions, jumping like frogs and meowing of kitties around here. He is also working these days on his jumping skills. Well one day he put the two together, lion-roared and jumped at the same time, which propelled him to his greatest height ever!

Creative Play

Painters like to play with color and space, musicians with sound and silence, writers with language, and young children with anything and everything. If given time and space to act on their own ideas they will arrange things, be the cause of events and choose where, when, how and with whom to play. Their natural creativity flourishes and they are on their way to becoming adults with lifelong passions and avocations, whatever they may be.