A Resource for Athens Area Families
   


Your Toddler, Your Child
A Child's Top Ten Play List
By Katy Arrowood, Owner/Director of Champions for Children Child Development Center
April/May 2001

If a child's work is play, how are we, as busy parents, to promote play within our children? Encouraging play includes interesting materials, a warm environment,, and a desire by the parent to assist their child in reaching their full potential. With that said, here is a child's top ten play list:

10. Wet and Dry. Children love to explore both wet and dry materials and this kind of play is inexpensive to encourage, yet priceless to experience. Children will learn what will sink and what will float and the difference between empty and full, in and out, wet and dry. Measuring with dry rice, pasta or pebbles helps to promote hands-on learning.

9. A Welcoming Environment. Each child should have the opportunity to play in a child-friendly place. Turn off the television and make sure breakables are put away, and you'll be on the way to having a wholesome play environment for your child. Words of encouragement without "taking over" the play are also helpful. Try asking open-ended question such as, "What would happen if..." or "How else could you use..." This helps to expand their play, while keeping it child-directed.

8. Don't put it up! Although orderliness is a wonderful character trait, children also need the opportunity to set up their play and expand on it. A good way to allow a child to find order in their world is to only have clean up times twice daily, once mid-day and once in the evening. This allows a child to manipulate their environment and yet you can still teach the importance of neatness. In other words, let them get it all out as they see fit, and explore their surroundings in that way; then facilitate clean up once they are ready to move on.

7. Sometimes with a partner, sometimes on my own. Some play times should be with other children, and a child should also have the chance to play on their own. Each circumstance offers learning opportunities for the child.

6. Change the scenery. It may mean that you go somewhere else to play such as the park or the pool. Another way is to take play outdoors, such as moving your child's play kitchen outside. Sometimes just a change of scenery will promote new ways to play.

5. Traditional toys are usually the best. Stick with the basics: balls, trikes, simple dolls, wagons or blocks to name a few.

4. Encourage dramatic play. One of the best parts of play is pretend. Fantasy is a big part of a child's world; this is how she works through her challenges in life. Provide old clothes, shoes, handbags and hats for dress up. Also provide props to be used during play, such as pots and pans. Children love the opportunity to handle grown-up materials.

3. Rhyme, Rhyme all of the time! The number one way to encourage reading is to teach preschoolers to rhyme. A child will never read and write to their potential if they do not learn to rhyme.

2. Box it up; They'll take it...the boxes that is. Collect boxes of different sizes and make them available to your child. A toddler loves a box that they can sit in and stretch out their legs, and it helps them to learn about size, especially theirs!

1. Give them time to just be a child. With all of the talk about helping your child to read early, be a math whiz at age three, and pretty much do a whole lot too early, the most important way we can help our children to reach their potential is to let them be children and play.

Katy Arrowood is the mother of Molly Kate, 4, and Keith, 10. Husband Ben is a nurse at ARMC's Special Care Nursery. She is Owner/Director of Champions for Children Child Development Center with a BSFCS in child and family development from UGA, and has written a book, A Woman's Recipe For Life.

Other articles by Katy Arrowwood:

 

.

Updated weekly!
Festivals, music, arts events    Storytimes
Parks and recreation events  •  Parent groups

Find it all on the Athens Parent online calendar

© 1998 - Athens Parent, Inc.  All rights reserved.
Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.
Send comments or suggestions to: webmaster@athensparent.com