How to Encourage Independent Play With Toddlers
Parents all want children who can play independently because we just need 10 minutes to drink our coffee hot, do the chores, prepare dinner etc. But did you know that there are lots of benefits for children to engage in independent play too? These include the space for creativity to flourish, the ability to self-direct […]
A Dedicated Art Space in the Home (Part 2) – 10 Skills Children Gain From Having A Space to Create Independently
This is Part 2 of a 2-part series I’m sharing about setting up a dedicated art space in our home. In the first part of this series, I shared the inspiration behind and the reasons why I decided to make space for creativity in our very tiny home, the rationale behind the choice of location […]
A Dedicated Art Space in the Home (Part 1) – Making Space for Creativity in Our Household
A little after my firstborn turned two, which was also just after we completed the 31 Days of Invitation to Create challenge, I decided to set up a dedicated art space in our home for our children to create freely and independently whenever they chose to do so, though at that point in time and […]
Play Teaches Skills That Aren’t Just Academic
Days like today, I’m so glad I always take heaps of photos of my children’s play. Tuesdays are hard days for me as the hubs work the afternoon-late night shift so basically I do the entire crazy witching hour before dinner time on my own, then dinner, bath and bedtime routine for both kids, with […]
PLAY IS – Learning Resilience, Perseverance and Mental Strength to Face Setbacks
So we had quite the morning today. I know this picture exudes peace and calm but the process of building the structure pictured here was nothing like it. In fact the construction in this photo was probably the fourth or fifth version of its kind before I managed to quickly snap these few shots before […]
Same Invitation, Different Learning Processes and Outcomes
So yesterday post afternoon naps for both girls, we were out in our yard playing for the whole afternoon til just before dinner. Miss 2 asked to do some painting so I simply set up an easy primary colours painting invitation for her on a paper plate so I could keep my eye on bubs […]
Would You Consider This Art?
Would You Consider This Art? We spent nearly two hours out in the yard yesterday evening. What started off as painting the yard with a paintbrush dipped in water, became wet chalk drawing on the pavement, became scavenging the yard for rocks and leaves and dried flowers, became sorting and arranging the natural materials onto […]
A Simple Trick to Encourage Toddlers to Deepen Their Play
A couple of days ago, I created a very open-ended backdrop to a small world play for my toddler with just a couple of Sarah Silks draped over milk crates and cardboard as well as a few pieces of our Grimms pastel rainbow. The playscape was open-ended in that it was purposefully set up minimally […]
A Passion for Play, A Passion for Learning
Some days I can’t wrap my head around the fact that she’s still only a 1yo. I see the focus and intense concentration she has when she plays and I’m just in awe and wonder. Oh she definitely does have her 2 minute concentration span and there’s a lot of those, believe you me. And […]
The Journey IS the Destination
Can I be the first to admit that a dawdling toddler tests my patience the most!! Much more than a playroom that gets messed up ten thousand times a day. Seriously the amount of time it takes us to get to places. Every Monday, we go to a playgroup that’s literally on the other end […]
Stories of Play – The Value in 2 Minutes of Play
This is a staged photo. I set this up to tell you a story about a play that lasted all of two minutes. So a couple of days ago, Miss 18mo picked up the empty basket in this picture, went straight to the shelf with all her felt vegetables and began filling the basket […]
The School of Life
One of my biggest beliefs about children’s learning is that there’s so much natural learning that happens from just doing life and including them in daily life. My mum is visiting from Singapore at the moment and she LOVES looking at fruit trees. So my MIL invited us to their property here with many fruit […]
Stories of Play – 10 Min Setup for a 2 Sec Play. Is it Worth It?
Introduced goop/oobleck to Miss 15mo for the first time today. It’s just 2 parts cornflour, 1 part water and food colouring of your choice. I kept the set up really simple and minimal so she could focus on simply exploring this new sensory medium. Even though she was initially excited, she became hesistant, then […]
The Value of Exposing Children to Experiences
A beautiful morning of getting up close and personal feeding these kanga friends at Caversham Wildlife Park, just 20 min from our place yesterday. We even got to see a mummy kanga nursing her baby joey and witness the beautiful interaction between the pair with lots of kisses and cuddles. It was the perfect opportunity […]
The Process of Play – What Happens When They Play
“What Is She Making?” I sent these couple of pictures from today’s sensory play with Miss 15mo to my family and my dad’s first question was “What is this? Is it modern art?” I sighed inwardly and wondered what to reply. To be honest, I get that a lot, from what I do with Miss […]
The Right Materials and Tools for Play
I mentioned in a previous drawing post about honouring the process of play more than the end product. Today I’m coming from a different angle, that of selecting the right materials and tools. When I set up an activity for Miss 14mo in which I know there’ll be some sort of mess involved, I make […]
Stories of Play – Process Over Product
Miss 14mo has been into any and every form of drawing recently – crayons, pens, markers you name it. Here in this picture, you can hardly call her rainbow scribbles a masterpiece (Though I love it personally and am going to frame it, totally not biased at all 😂). But what you don’t see is […]
Stories of Play – When They Take A Play Setup in a Totally Different Direction
Recently I’ve noticed Miss 13mo engaging in some basic imaginative play using a couple of her animal figurines. She would take a few of them and “walk” them up and down the Grimms rainbow stackers we’ve got in her play area (see previous post). To help her exercise more of that imagination, I set up […]