Just Add Water

The gorgeous summer weather has been a great time to involve h2o in our outside play.  The paddling pool came out the shed and got cleaned up.  Part of it had sprung a leak so it didn't fully inflate but Ethan was just as happy with it as last year and his play has become much more precise with detailed storytelling going on involving boats, shells, cars and london buses.  Quite often a toy will end up in there that is not really made for water but Ethan just wants to involve all his toys in whatever game he is playing!  Ethan remembers back to the sinking/floating experiments we all did at Belsize Bears whenever he is in water now and loves to predict what will happen with new objects and test it out.  I do hope he gains a love of science which I found very uninspiring at school as it is actually interesting when presented in the right way!

 
When Marley came to play I filled the tuff spot with water and the plastic food and tea set for them to play with.  This soon became a big muddy puddle! They splashed around and got the watering can and measuring jug to pour muddy water on each other.  They also both lay down in it.  It was one of those occasions I am glad I am not friends with people who are overly precious about their children getting mucky as both boys were covered in water and mud by the end of the picnic.  My theory is clothes and children can always be washed so let them go wild! Children can sense our inhibition in situations and it can stifle their creativity.  The beauty of childhood is living in the moment so if we can allow them to just be, then we should.

At Belsize Bears we filled the tuff spot with water again but this time it was set up outside on a concrete path with no mud around so it was an entirely different experience.  The invitation to play we set up was drinking straws, beakers and an early learning centre pour and play run.  I also filled an old washing up bottle with coloured water.  The beauty of the tuff spot (or builders tray which can be purchased at builders merchants or ebay) is that children of all ages can access the play.  This meant the whole group was engaged in an activity at once and it was lovely to see.  They did pouring, squirting, splashing, paddling, imaginative play and were able to practice social skills negotiating a play space involving lots of other children.

Down on the Farm

Ethan used to love playing on the model farm I picked up for £3 from a summer fete last year (mainly putting on the vehicles on it, sometimes adding pebbles too) but lately he hasn't been interested at all.  So while he was at nursery today I thought I would jazz it up a bit with some compost and hay (shhh, don't tell the guinea pigs!). I also got all the farm animals out, a tractor and some small model cats.

I had placed the pig in a box containing compost as it's pen.  Ethan said "How can the pig get out of there? I know, he can jump out!" and then he spotted Jess the cat and told me he needed Postman Pat and his van too.  It was lovely to see him engaging in play with this again after many months of being disinterested in it.  Adding natural materials was a great way to make this play a more sensory experience and Ethan enjoyed smelling and touching it.

Coloured Salt

Given the success of yesterday's invitation to play, I have decided to try and do one each day for Ethan. I have been meaning to do something with coloured salt ever since I saw it on the Imagination Tree website.  I poured some table salt into a tub, added quite a few drops of blue food colouring and then stirred it until it became a powdery blue.  I liked how sparkly the salt made it look and Ethan commented on that when he came down and found it presented in a blue (unused!) cat litter tray with a tool in.

Ethan thought it was sugar at first and ran straight over to investigate further.  At first he used the tool to drag through the salt.  Then he asked if he could make a hand print. Then I showed him how I could write an e in it for Ethan using my finger and he copied.

After this Ethan ran to get the cookie cutters to make shapes in the salt.  He made a hexagon and diamond and asked me what the shape names were.  He also made a crocodile and pig.

Then Ethan added the cars.

He had so much fun with the existing resources by utilising them in a new way with the salt.

Time for Tea

My sister Jo gave us the tea set her girls have now outgrown so whilst Ethan was in bed last night I set up an invitation to play .  I used a muslin as a makeshift tablecloth on his small table and then set up the tea set.  I added coloured lolly sticks and pom poms from the craft supplies.  When I'd finished it looked so tempting I wanted to have a play myself!

When Ethan woke up and saw the table he was very excited. He ran straight over and began placing one pom pom in each teacup.  Then he took them out and filled the teapot with pom poms.  He used the lolly sticks to get the pom poms out from the bottom of the teapot when they got stuck.  Then he made me a cup of tea and some breakfast (filling a saucer with pom poms and giving me a lolly stick "spoon". Then Ethan made lots of dinners for me and gave me a lolly stick knife, spoon and fork to eat them with before placing the crockery and cutlery in the "washing up" on the sofa.  Ethan continued this game for two hours.  It was wonderful to see his imagination sparked and be included in his imaginative play.