Sometimes it’s just plain hard to think of new things to do at home with toddlers and/or preschoolers. You don’t really have the time or energy to search around for ideas or items to use, you just want to have fun with them and see the joy on their faces as you do things together.
A book like Child’s Play is great in this respect. Simplicity is at the heart of these Montessori-based activities, which is great if you’ve got a day to spend with your young child/ren and want to try something new on a whim. The activities create purposeful play (‘learning through experience’), and there are learning aims outlined in each introductory paragraph. Often, variations on the activity are presented to keep you going along the same lines but adding in new elements – which can be very useful, particularly when you’re dealing with short attention spans.
I’m liking
The layout of the book is really simple. There is an introduction to Montessori principles and their origins, followed by chapters laid out on a topical basis: exploring senses, arts and crafts and out and about are a few examples. Every chapter has a host of activities with guides for age-appropriateness which is very helpful. The activities are for 1, 2 and 3 year olds, though as your child gets older the book becomes more useful as there are more suggested variations and a greater selection of activites to accomodate your child’s growing capabilities.
Some of the ideas are really innovative and clever while still not requiring many resources. Templates are provided for a few activities, so you can make the items required yourself or in conjunction with your child which is a lovely touch.
Things that made me go hmmmm
Some of the activities are incredibly basic. We’re talking ‘sing Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes with your child’ and how to play hide and seek – basic.
Activities are all listed in a step-by-step manner so even if it’s creating a print with your child of their hands, you are told every single step to achieve this from putting down the paper to washing hands afterwards and hanging up the picture to dry. Personally, I found this level of detail irked me a bit. That said, the detail also points out every possibly opportunity for learning so it can be useful on this level.
The conclusion
If you want to be inspired to do a few new simple things with your small children, this book may have a role on your bookshelf (or hopefully off the shelf being regularly used!). It could certainly aid in giving some direction and productivity to downtime around the home with small people, without causing any great expense either in the book itself or in carrying out the activities.
Child’s Play by Maja Pitamic is available at the very reasonable RRP of $24.99 and is published by New Holland Publishers.
