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In another place, I am having a discussion about 'play' and how it differs now from when I was a child in the early '50s. I guess we look at our own upbringing with rose-coloured glasses to some extent, and we may also forget some of the things we did and why. I cannot remember back to when I was 18 months old, as Alannah is. However, I do have strong memories from when I was 5 until I was, let's use 10. For some of that time I lived in Hornsby, and for some of that time I lived on a farm outside Denman in the Upper Hunter Valley.
I had neither play-dough nor a sand pit, but I did Matchbox cars, and I did have a dirt patch in which to play.
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This week, playing at Ma's, we introduced play-dough. I have no idea whether Alannah has used play-dough much before. She was hesitant on the Monday, but by the Wednesday she took to it with alacrity. For her, it has a very physical proponent. She like the feel of it, and the fact that she can mould it and pull it to bits. She is learning to roll it in her hands, and by next week maybe a ball will result. On Wednesday, I made her a Daddy and I made her a Mummy. We made balls, and snakes, and stars.
We have played with a sand-pit all year. We have play with small cars and trucks for longer than this year. But for the first time on Wednesday, we combined the two. We also used our collection of rocks, and shells, and leaves, to decorate the castle in the middle of our sand-pit, while the trucks brrrrmmmed around in the moat. I suspect this game with be expanded this coming week.
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6 comments:
I love the photo of Alannah with the play-dough tucked under her chin.
And there's never as much fun as toys in sand.
For now, I enjoy seeing her pudgy little baby-hands with their dimples, because they'll soon become slim, and probably beautiful, but won't be cute little baby hands any more.
K
'twasn't play dough in our day ... it was plasticine. We didn't have it at home but had it a Sunday School.
That is a very organised sand pit. Does Alannah do dolls as well as trucks? Though kids these days seemed to be swamped in soft toys.
Joan: the sandpit is organised because I had just set it up. There is only so many times in a session that I remember to take photos, and I have to put the camera back inside each time, because it is on public view.
She is not a big doll person. Just this week, I asked Kirsten to bring over some soft toys (dolls, teddies, other soft animals) and we do a big thing at the start of each day, of putting them around the courtyard so they can watch us play. I need to devise a method of encouraging Alannah to actively involve them in play. Like setting p a shop, and taking them shopping. Or something. It will form in my head. But I want it to cover a range of 'learnings'. See, here I go again. The educator in me. It is her imagination that I want to work with.
You are such a wonderful Ma but I bet you enjoy playing as much as she does. On Skype Sonya is full of all the things Fox is doing these days. He was funny today he wanted Mum to finish talking to us so he waves at us and blows a kiss and says bye bye. He is wrapped in emergency vehicles and calls them Tooo Toooo trying to mimic the sound of a siren. Friends and family have given him quite a lot of toy emergency vehicles to play with. One day Sonya showed him a TV article about a street parade of emergency vehicles, he sat and watched with interest and joined in with the crowds watching and waved at them. Later that day he lined up all his vehicles like in a parade and then sat back and waved at them.
Yeah, equally much, I reckon, Diane.
We read this together today. Well, we read and talked about the photos together. She does love seeing photos of places, activities and people she recognises.
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