Empowering Parents Sharing Playfulness

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Empowering Parents Sharing Playfulness
Children are curious creatures. They explore,
question, and wonder, and by doing so, learn.
From the moment of birth we are drawn to new
things. When we are curious about something new,
we want to explore it. And while exploring we
discover.
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What do you know about?

• Child Development
• The importance of Play
• Brain Development
• The importance of Emotional and Mental Wellbeing
• The importance of Physical Wellbeing
• Early Learning Possibilities

Stop Keeping This a Secret!!!!
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15 x 36 Quality Home Learning Best Start
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What do you see?
If a child stays curious, he will continue to
explore and discover.
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Explore and Discover
Experiment and Investigate
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Imitate and Celebrate
What is most pleasurable about discovery and
mastery is sharing it with someone else. We are
social creatures. The most positive
reinforcement the greatest reward and the
greatest pleasure comes from the adoring and
admiring gaze, comments and support from someone
we love and respect.
Practice and Achieve
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Imagine and Create
For too many children, curiosity fades.
Curiosity dimmed is a future denied. Our
potential emotional, social, and cognitive
is expressed through the quantity and quality of
our experiences.
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The C.I.D. Approach
If I am curious, I will investigate
If I Investigate, I will discover
When I Discover, I am Learning
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Think of a Building

• The less-curious child may
• make fewer new friends,
• join fewer social groups,
• explore less and create
• less.

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In the Kitchen Drawer!
Fear kills curiosity. When the child's world is
chaotic or when he is afraid, he may not like
novelty. He will seek the familiar, staying in
his comfort zone, unwilling to leave and explore
new things.
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Wee Ideas

• Play and Stay Sessions
• Singing Circles
• Wee Bags of Discovery
• Top Tip Posters/ Buggy Books
• Maths Bags
• Art Cards
• Cheeky Challenge

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Some other Wee Ideas
Tickle Giggle Bump
Tea, Talk, Toast, Tuesdays
Yarn Bombing
Tickle Giggle Play
Stitch and Bitch
Pimp My Ride
Ready Steady Restore
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Singing Together Sessions

• Rhymes and songs encourage many basic skills in
  movement, speech, cognition and perception.
• The use of repetition, rhythm and rhyme support
  the development of language.

• Consider the range of songs you enjoy with your
  babies and toddlers. How visual do you make
  them?
• What learning potential do you set up through the
  song sets you use?
• Remember to make your rhyme time fun, interactive
  and as visual and active as possible!
• Nursery Rhymes are part of the oral tradition of
  language.

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Play and Stay Sessions
Tuning children into learning should be an
engaging experience for all involved, adults and
children creating a learning opportunity in
partnership.
Setting the scene for enjoying books and stories
should never be a brief or undervalued activity.
Find a way to catch a childs imagination, to
create a new world which excites all involved.
Children being active agents not passive
recipients
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Allow children to be drawn into an experience by
using your voice, a piece of music, a piece of
stimuli (an alien and funny voice!)
Emotional climates have strong correlation with
achievement
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Offer children reason to remain emerged, sit back
and let them lead. Praise their engagement and
success.
In the story the aliens steal underpants. We
hid them around the room in small and large
envelopes for the children to find. Then we
waited.
Look, spotty pants!, Ive found spotty
pants. Big red ones with spots!
There were 41 children Involved in this
experience. Each as excited as this little girl,
eager to wave their pants in the air and describe
them with luscious language.
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Even when we think there will be no response,
look to enable a child, even the youngest to
switch on
Be bold, step away and allow the children to take
ownership and watch the learning transpire.
Give time for a child to respond, then extend
their engagement in an appropriate way, by
repetition, new suggestion or similar experience
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Chatter Natter

• Use the telephone, microphone and voice changer
  to talk to your little one rather than just
  talking.
• Ask them simple questions, like a wee interview.
• Suggest you sing a line of a song then they sing
  the next line, keep taking turns until the end.
  Make sure they know most of the words, help them
  if they get stuck.

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Chatter Natter

• Walk round the room and name something you see,
  then ask them to name something. Repeat a few
  times.
• This time walk round the room and give a little
  clue,
• I see something soft, invite them to guess
  what you see. Then suggest they give you a clue.
• Challenge them by saying something like name a
  blue thing or name something higher then the
  cushion.

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Push and Pull

• Let your little one play around with the various
  cars in the bag.
• Talk about them what they look like, what they
  are, what they do.
• Encourage your child to push them and pull them
  on different surfaces. A magazine, a table, a
  carpet.

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Push and Pull

• Can they take the car apart?
• Even the tyres come off!
• How far can your child make the
• car drive?
• Let your little one take the car to
• pieces then build it back again.
• Offer help when required.
• Guess how quickly you can take
• them a part and build them back
• up.

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Bonding Time
Im great for tickles and giggles
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Learning to Read
we can help your baby learn to read!
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Lets Chat
I can help encourage your little one to talk
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Lets Set the Table

• Mango loves to play with kitchen utensils, His
  favourite is spoons. Let your little one help
  Mango play with the spoons in the bag, talk about
  them, describe them.
• Why not let Mango find any other spoons,
  encourage your little one to show him where they
  are! Can your child talk about the spoons with
  Mango?
• Challenge your child to tell Mango what all the
  spoons can be used for, why they are different to
  the forks and knives.
• Can they find the smallest and biggest spoons?

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Lets Set the Table

• Mango likes to set the table. Encourage your
  child to take some cutlery out of the drawer and
  use it to set the places at the table. Or put a
  couple of sheets of paper or towels down on the
  floor and set the picnic up for snack.
• Count out the cutlery for each setting then
  place them out ready for the plates.
• Pour some pasta pieces into a bowl and some sugar
  or salt in another. Suggest your child and Mango
  try to spoon the contents into another bowl or
  onto a plate. Use each spoon and see which the
  find easier to use.

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Lets Sort

• Buttons loves to sort things out! His favourite
  it buttons. Put a big pile of buttons on the
  floor and let your little one help Buttons sort
  them into piles. - think about the colour of the
  button- sort all the same sizes- and all the
  same shapes- are they plastic or metal
• Encourage your child to help Joe sort the jewels
  into different categories. Big and small, by
  colour or shape.
• Suggest Buttons helps you both sort the washing!
  Into piles of each family members or white,
  colours or towels and clothes.

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Lets Sort

• Go a hunt around the house and find things that
  Buttons and your child may be able to sort out.
  Perhaps put a basket of toys together and then
  sort them into categories such as animals,
  characters and cars.
• Go to the park and take Buttons with you.
  Challenge your child to find a group of leaves,
  all the same then pretend Buttons is making sure
  they all go together.
• Find some twigs and sort them by length if you
  can find a few petals or flowers great. Or find a
  set of things that are made of wood, metal or
  fabric! (look for swings, benches, your clothes!)

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Training or Resources

• Resources
• Wonderbox
• Rooms 31/32
• Hydepark Business Centre
• 60 Mollinsburn Street
• Glasgow
• G21 4SF
• 0141 557
• www.wonderbox.co.uk
• info_at_wonderbox.co.uk

• Training
• Experiential Play
• Rooms 31/32
• Hydepark Business Centre
• 60 Mollinsburn Street
• Glasgow
• G21 4SF
• 0141 557 3304
• www.experientialplay.com
• office_at_experientialplay.com