Posts Tagged ‘play’

We had the opportunity to test drive the Tadpoles Playmat in Stylish Pink-Brown.

A. Cute!!

B. Fun!!

The playmat is made of EVA foam which is soft and squishy, making for a fun play surface. We had fun assembling the puzzle pieces of the mat. Sammi’s favorite part was putting the circle centers into the holes. At first she was insistent that the center color must match the frame color, but about half-way through she decided to get wild. She started putting different colors together. She thought mismatching the colors was so funny.

Elli also got in on the action. She had fun putting circle centers in. She and Sammi raced to see who could get their center in the fastest. They were so cute scrambling around the surface of the mat finding empty spots for their circles. I thought the mat was a bit small at first, but they had plenty of room to play on it together.

We left the mat out for a few days. It happened to be assembled by the front door so it got a lot of foot traffic and dirt. I was worried that all the walking on it would damage the foam. But it didn’t. When I put the mat away (so I could clean for a party) the pieces cleaned-up easily and looked great. My favorite part was that all the pieces fit back into the original packaging easy peasy.

This playmat is available from Tadpoles Bedding Company for $24.99. It also comes in three color combination choices: stylish pink-brown, sophisticated blue-brown, and modern classic multi-color.

If you haven’t had a chance yet, please enter the giveaway for Recess Monkey’s latest album The Final Funktier for a chance to win it before you can buy it. Giveaway runs through Monday, May 24.

If you haven’t yet, please check out the Baby Leg Warmers giveaway going on until March 1o.

…time and space for free play.

I’m continuing my series on ways I would love to make a difference in the world. In previous posts I suggested an indoor play area not part of a fast food restaurant in every community and a bookshelf full of age appropriate books for every home. I’ve been thinking a lot about play as a necessary part of child development. I recently began reading Playful Parenting by Lawrence J. Cohen. He names three reason child desperately need play in their lives:

1. To Connect, or Reconnect after connection has been severed
2. To Build Confidence by role playing and practicing new skills in a safe environment
3. To Heal from Emotional Distress by recreating the situation with different roles and outcomes

These are compelling reasons why children need generous amounts of free time to play, create, connect, imagine and discover the world around them and their position in that world. I see such potential in my little ones and I want more than anything to provide every opportunity to foster that potential. But my biggest fear is over-scheduling them in sports, lessons, service opportunities and any other good thing that may arise. Cohen goes on to explain that this need for play is not an early childhood phenomenon. That childhood is made up of this need to play and it stretches long past toddlerhood.

It’s not just important that children play, but that they have playmates. This could be siblings, friends and even, maybe most importantly, parents. When we use play as an opportunity to connect with our children we can learn something about them and their experiences that we would never be able to draw out of them through conversation alone. When we use play to build confidence in our children they are learning in a most powerful way the strength of their character and determination to master a skill. When we use play to help them heal from emotional distress we skip over the discipline, yelling, correcting that we somehow come to rely on and jump instead straight to the heart of the matter and bring our little ones back to the joy of life they so often display.

For these reasons, and many more, I want every child to have the time and space to play.

What do you want for every child?

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As we head into this weekend I am grateful for two things:

1. Antibiotics
2. Ear infections

Yep, I’m grateful that Sammi has a double ear infection because it explains why she hasn’t been hearing well the last few days. I was really starting to worry about the rapid decline in her hearing and was starting to look into where to get a hearing test done. She hasn’t complained about her ears at all so I had no idea. Now, I’ll be even more grateful when she’s back to her normal self.

Also about the ear infections. Elli has a double ear infection as well. Having both children sick explains why they have both been so emotional and clingy this week. I have developed a sinus infection so the extra crying has been more miserable than normal.

Which brings me to the antibiotics. I’m glad we don’t need them often and I’m glad we have them available when we do need them. I know it was purely mental, but Sammi was in a better mood after her first dose. She’s been such a trooper!

On a bright note, I have been steadily reading daily. Currently I am on page 179. That’s 145 pages in two weeks or just about 10 pages a day. I’m lovin’ it! I mentioned before that I was trying to become a daily reader. I think I always have been but I wasn’t taking into consideration the magazines, blogs, and scriptures that together I read daily.

In addition to The Dreamers, I started Playful Parenting by Lawrence Cohen and am really enjoying his perspective and anecdotes that illustrate the points he makes. Play really is necessary for children to make sense of the world around them. We need to make sure we give them ample space, time and interaction that they get enough play. And finally, I just got Jim Trelease’s The Read-Aloud Handbook. I know. I’m shocked I didn’t already own it, too. But now I have it and I can’t wait to refresh my memory by reading it again.

Welcome to the random thoughts swirling in, through, and around the sinus infection. They’ve been getting muddled a bit this week. I am hoping that come Monday I will be clear headed again and have a lot more energy for cleaning. and blogging.

Have a great weekend!

…An indoor play area NOT part of a fast food restaurant.

I’ve noticed a trend in blog posts, Facebook status updates and conversations during these long winter months. That topic? How to keep from going crazy couped up inside when it’s too cold to play outside. Fast food has not been an acceptable option for me when it comes to feeding my girls. Even as recent as last month I turned down a lunch invite to McDonald’s because I didn’t want to buy that food for my girls. But, one late nap and a very wired three year old had me singing a very different tune.

When trying to find ways for Sammi to get some physical play when she woke up from a nap at 6 pm I was in a bit of a dilemma. How on earth was I supposed to get her tired enough to go to bed when it was already dark and it was very cold and snowy? I finally caved and we went to Old McDonald’s(as she calls it) so she could climb, slide and crawl to her heart’s content. Since that fateful day, we have gone to McDonald’s four or five more times. It kills me! I just want a place to play without the obligation to purchase food.

Another option is the play areas at the mall. We’re fortunate enough that the malls that are close to us all have pretty fun play areas. They provide opportunities for climbing and sliding and, as an added bonus, a bit of imaginative play. But the closest mall to us is 45 minutes away, not exactly a viable option for an evening outing. And not all malls have play areas. I was shocked when a mall in Utah removed its wonderful play area because of lack of funding to maintain it. Seriously?

So, I propose a community indoor play area that is not associated with food, that is not associated shopping, that is just a place focused on play. I want it to be on neutral ground where any family would feel comfortable using the indoor play area.  Just as they would to play at the city park.

What do you want for every community?

While at Blissdom earlier this month I had the opportunity to hear, and later speak with, one of the most influential players in promoting the necessity of play, Kevin Carroll. I sat in awe as I listened to his story of overcoming being abandoned by his father and then his mother. He embraced play as a way to explore his feelings, understand his experiences and find a place to belong. I can hardly do his story justice; you’ll just have to imagine the most touching story of trial and triumph told in the most eloquent way and you’ll have some idea of what I experienced.

I have long valued the power of play in a child’s life. I firmly believe every child needs time and space to play. To explore their environment, to learn how to interact with others and to let their imaginations run wild. Kevin Carroll, Katalyst reminded me that it’s not just children who need time and space to play. As adults, we also benefit from play, daily. My favorite quote from his presentation was, “If you don’t make time for play-deleterious things will happen!” We even took an oath resigning our adulthood and embracing the opportunities for play that come with childhood. I needed the reminder that play is important for renewing my creativity as much so as it is for my children.

I wanted to share Kevin Carroll with you because he’s really inspired me to evaluate my dreams and vision for my future and the future of my blog. I find myself filled with a desire to do good, a yearning to make a difference, and yet I am having a difficult time clarifying exactly what good I can do or what difference I can make. His presentation has filled my head with all kinds of ideas for way to find my dream and develop a plan to accomplish it.

Since such a journey seemed rather daunting to me, I thought I’d share it with you as a way to motivate me to continue my pursuit and a way to get feedback and input along the way. As I was talking with my mom on the drive home from Nashville about the ideas that were rolling around in my mind, she added some terrific dreams of her own that I plan on sharing, too. I’m looking forward to this process together!

To get started, what inspires you?

Photo Credit:http://www.flickr.com/photos/mooshinindy/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0