We’ve talked in previous posts about the importance of play and how to support/expand the play with a child (see examples here and here). What happens when you are playing with a child and they make an ooops? Maybe they fill their pretend car with juice rather than gas,…
So you’ve been letting your child take the lead, and drive the play. He’s coming up with a few creative ideas but they tend to be the same ideas again and again. What do you do if you’re getting bored? Sometimes we can all feel a bit stuck…
There have been a fair number of articles popping up over social media about the importance of playground play. Playgrounds can be fantastic fun and they provide a multitude of learning opportunities! We’ve highlighted our top 6 below. Language Development. Children learn about ‘how things work’ and make meaning…
This week it was -17 Celsius in Toronto. I don’t know about you but I don’t do playgrounds when the temperature drops that low! So what kind of play can we do indoors that encourages the same kind of active, problem-solving, confidence-building, creative play? We’ve got a few ideas…
A camping tent in the basement. A snow fort in the backyard. A bedsheet draped over chairs in the living room. These three (seemingly) unrelated play activities are actually variations of one and the same and I have yet to meet a child who doesn’t enjoy this kind of…
Whether it is pretending to be a princess, dragon, or teacher, children love to play pretend. Psychologist Lev Vygotsky said “the child always behaves above his average age, and above his daily behaviour; in play it is as though he were a head taller than himself”. (Alright, maybe 20…
Math – the same as fun? Hmm … Maybe when I was really young and busy counting my candies for snack, playing store or counting monopoly money I would have said math was fun, but as I got older – No way! Still when I hear the word math,…
The past couple of weeks I have been in South Korea training a fantastic group of pediatric Speech and Language Therapists. One of the therapists I was working with mentioned that a client of hers loves to play with cars. Surprise, surprise! She wants to respect his interest in…
Every memory that I have of school is of sitting; cross-legged on the floor at circle time, in front of neatly lined-up desks, and squished in narrow lecture hall seats. Based on my experience, sitting certainly did seem to equal learning — it is where I took tests, read…
In preschools everywhere, we see caring and well-intentioned educators encouraging young children to share toys. We’ve all seen these situations: Jonny is playing with the car. Billy sees the car and tries to take it away from Jonny. An adult intervenes and maybe after a minute or two, takes…