Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Organized Play

We've been spending more time at home, especially in the mornings, since Matilda was born, and I find that Shelby can get bored...and boredom leads to mischief and messes.  Using a toddler trays system for offering her a variety of activities has really helped with this.  Here's the idea:
Each tray has a different variety of activities.  The purple tray has a patterning activity, a few noodles that can they be sorted by color using the tweezers, and then the noodles can be made into a patterned necklace.  The blue tray has stamps that spell "Shelby" and are for finishing her Christmas thank you cards.  The green tray has Chicka Chicka Boom Boom and a big white "J" with "J" stickers and stamps for decorating. The blue tray has a xylophone for practicing lowest to highest notes.  Underneath it are different sizes of different colored paper to first sort by size and then sort by color.  There is a numbers tray in the background to rotate in after she finishes one tray.  The numbers tray has a puzzle, a book, and a counting/graphing activity she can do with a stamp marker.  She may choose to do 2 or 3 trays in a given morning, but they well-organized layout seems to pique her interest and help her to select an activity.  It's not forced on her, but it just offers options and helps stave off boredom.

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