my sister needs you!!!!

[Me, My Girls & I]

my sister's doing her AS english language coursework atm and needs your help!! she's doing a leaflet on constructive play for babies/toddlers and is after your top tips!

so ladies, your top tips for constructive play please!!

 

[Jo]

Just about to go in the bath but will reply better to you later x

 

[Toonlass]

What like play doh and stuff? Or flash cards? xx

 

[Mervs Mum]

Is that like when you switch the telly off??????

 

[Toonlass]

 

[Me, My Girls & I]

lisa!! just things like building towers and knocking them over, squeezing sponges to feel the water and that kinda stuff

 

[Toonlass]

Jake just sucks the water out of sponges. I used to have an aqua draw mat for kieran but i would dip his hands in the water and let him put his hand prints on the mat rather than use the pen. Also he used to enjoy pouring sand through a mill type toy to watch it spin. Also blowing bubbles in the bath and letting them catch them, even jake enjoys that. Dunno if this is the kind of thing your after xx

 

[Caitlyns Mummy x]

Not sure what you want but I'll just list some things we do

Playing catch and football
Messy play
Arts and crafts
Going on walks and not being a germ phobe. Letting them actually feel things they want to feel and explore everything they want to explore (obviously without them getting in danger)
All the words she knows we go over every day, if they're "things" we draw them and go over them, if they're just words I find a way to use them. Then I'll make an effort to try and teach her some new ones. I'll say "what's that, Caitlyn?" and she'll point and tell me what it is. Or if I ask "where's the...." she'll point to it and say "here"
Umm... Bath time can be fab for learning things like weight, and floating, stacking cups in the bath are great although most of the time she just drinks out of them sometimes she will work out how much water needs to go in one for it to sink and silly things like that. And she has her baths quite deep and she swims around in them
She loves counting the beads on her wire thingy majig.. You know what I mean right?
Counting arms and legs when we get dressed, we've moved on to fingers and toes now she can count to 10
OH and one more thing, SONGS! Head, shoulders, knees and toes is so fun and she learnt the whole song (what to point to) by 15 months

*turned into an essay*

 

[Jo]

Sorry it has taken me a while to come back to you on this.
What age is the leaflet aimed at?
I've just dug my bits and peices out, some of it is very jargony

But basically constructive play is where a child will take whatever is around them, whether it be a building block or a cereal box and they get creative with it, they may make a rocketship or a house or just a tower to knock it over.

Constructive play allows them to experiment and find out what works and what doesn't for example a round block will more than likely not support a square block, but the other wat round may work.
These idea can alsobe applied to sand, water, play dough etc...

It is all about them making discoveries for them selves, I mean we do let our children do stuff like this everyday but just don't catogrise it.

I don't know about you girls but I have never looked and Jack playing and said" woohoo you are using fine motor skill to manipulate that malleable object"

I hope that helped x