
Your Toddler, Your Child
A Child's Top Ten Play List
By Katy Arrowood, Owner/Director
of Champions
for Children Child Development Center
April/May 2001
If a child's work is play, how
are we, as busy parents, to promote play within our children? Encouraging
play includes interesting materials, a warm environment,, and a
desire by the parent to assist their child in reaching their full
potential. With that said, here is a child's top ten play list:
10. Wet and Dry. Children love to explore both wet and dry materials
and this kind of play is inexpensive to encourage, yet priceless
to experience. Children will learn what will sink and what will
float and the difference between empty and full, in and out, wet
and dry. Measuring with dry rice, pasta or pebbles helps to promote
hands-on learning.
9. A Welcoming Environment. Each child should have the opportunity
to play in a child-friendly place. Turn off the television and make
sure breakables are put away, and you'll be on the way to having
a wholesome play environment for your child. Words of encouragement
without "taking over" the play are also helpful. Try asking
open-ended question such as, "What would happen if..."
or "How else could you use..." This helps to expand their
play, while keeping it child-directed.
8. Don't put it up! Although orderliness is a wonderful character
trait, children also need the opportunity to set up their play and
expand on it. A good way to allow a child to find order in their
world is to only have clean up times twice daily, once mid-day and
once in the evening. This allows a child to manipulate their environment
and yet you can still teach the importance of neatness. In other
words, let them get it all out as they see fit, and explore their
surroundings in that way; then facilitate clean up once they are
ready to move on.
7. Sometimes with a partner, sometimes on my own. Some play times
should be with other children, and a child should also have the
chance to play on their own. Each circumstance offers learning opportunities
for the child.
6. Change the scenery. It may mean that you go somewhere else to
play such as the park or the pool. Another way is to take play outdoors,
such as moving your child's play kitchen outside. Sometimes just
a change of scenery will promote new ways to play.
5. Traditional toys are usually the best. Stick with the basics:
balls, trikes, simple dolls, wagons or blocks to name a few.
4. Encourage dramatic play. One of the best parts of play is pretend.
Fantasy is a big part of a child's world; this is how she works
through her challenges in life. Provide old clothes, shoes, handbags
and hats for dress up. Also provide props to be used during play,
such as pots and pans. Children love the opportunity to handle grown-up
materials.
3. Rhyme, Rhyme all of the time! The number one way to encourage
reading is to teach preschoolers to rhyme. A child will never read
and write to their potential if they do not learn to rhyme.
2. Box it up; They'll take it...the boxes that is. Collect boxes
of different sizes and make them available to your child. A toddler
loves a box that they can sit in and stretch out their legs, and
it helps them to learn about size, especially theirs!
1. Give them time to just be a child. With all of the talk about
helping your child to read early, be a math whiz at age three, and
pretty much do a whole lot too early, the most important way we
can help our children to reach their potential is to let them be
children and play.
Katy Arrowood is the mother of Molly Kate, 4, and Keith, 10. Husband
Ben is a nurse at ARMC's Special Care Nursery. She is Owner/Director
of Champions
for Children Child Development Center with a BSFCS in child
and family development from UGA, and has written a book, A
Woman's Recipe For Life.
Other articles by Katy Arrowwood:
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