It’s been quite some time since I shared what’s currently on our playshelf and the setup has changed slightly. While both kids are down for a nap at the same time and I’m resetting the playroom, I thought I’d show you what it looks like now that our play space has to cater for both a baby and a toddler.
If you click here to see our previous setups, you’d see that I’ve since shifted the brown play mat from the middle of the room to right next to the shelf. While it means that Miss 19mo has a slightly smaller play area, it also means that there’s now room for a little play area for bubs. This entire space is actually right in the middle of our living room. To the left is a wall with our tv mounted on it and a bookshelf next to it. To the right is the children’s art gallery wall with a tray table on the floor for the toddler to do drawing on. I’m taking this photo sitting on our couch and that’s the entire room.
The Playshelf
Apart for the top right cubicle which is for bubs, everything else is for the 19mo. Her favourite thing to play with at the moment are those magnatiles on the bottom right. I didn’t think she’d get into them this early but for the past couple of weeks, it’s the only thing on this shelf that gets pulled out to play with once a day if not more. It’s also the “toy” that has started her foray into the world of symbolic play i.e. using objects to represent other objects, actions or ideas. From initially being only fascinated with and exploring its magnetic properties, she began to use them to build houses for her animal figurines, which explains the books on the top of the shelf (I like to use books to encourage and further deepen ongoing interests). Besides houses, she has now begun building roads too. This week with my completion of some DIY rainbow peg dolls (see couple of posts earlier), I added them to the shelf and she’s begun including them in her play with the Grimms pastel rainbow, using the latter as slides, bridges, houses and see-saws for the dolls.
Other current interests include pointing out alphabet letters that she recognizes everywhere she goes from the YMCA sign where she attends playgroup weekly, to sign boards at her swimschool as well as signs at the shops. She can identify S (her initial), C (her sister’s initial), D (her favourite stuffed donkey), Y and A (from the song YMCA 😂) and finally O (from her current fav song (Bless the Lord O My Soul). To further encourage this interest, I put out these beautiful alphabet cards on top of the shelf and rotate them between those letters she recognizes.
Finally, she’s also been interested in using the knife so I’ve put out a set of velcro wooden fruits for her to practice cutting with. We have always allowed her to help us when we work in the kitchen so lately, I’ve given her a butter knife to cut kiwi & banana for herself too. I think that’s pretty much it 🙂
Magnatiles: Sweet Elephants (gifted)
Animals: Oh Ivy
Alphabet cards: Teepee Learning
Wooden fruits: My Wooden Toys
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