I am a HUGE believer that the physical environment plays a powerful role in the behavior of children. In both the Playful Learning Spaces eCourse and the Playful Learning 101 miniCourse, I go in-depth about how the presentation of simple invitations can inspire children to engage in meaningful activities.
What I love about creating these invitations is that they are easy (you don’t have to tackle that scary closet) and you can use materials and activities that you already have on hand. It helps to think of these invitations as a way to highlight your child’s underused supplies, games or toys. It is amazing how putting together a few thoughtfully selected items on/in a tray, bin, or basket can reawaken a child’s interest.
And, here comes the best part, all you have to do is leave them out for your child to discover. You don’t have to say a thing!
I am really excited that Annie Riechmann from Alphabet Glue and Bird and Little Bird is with us today to launch our Creating Playful Spaces week! Annie is sharing the inspiring project area that she created for her daughter.
Be sure to check back each day this week to discover tips and resources for creating engaging spaces for the children in your life. To celebrate, we are offering a 30% discount on the Playful Learning Spaces eCourse (see coupon below for details).
For the last few years, our family has taken up residence in a small house near the local hospital where my medical student husband spends a lot of his time. Being near to the hospital means that we get to see him more than we otherwise might, but small space living as a family of four (with a myriad of pets) can sometimes be a challenge. Add to this the changing space needs of growing children, and I find that I often need to reevaluate how we are using our space and what we could change to do a better job of making our home a creative and useable, but also peaceful environment.
Recently, I came across Lori Pickert’s fantastic book, Project-Based Homeschooling, and found myself completely overcome with inspiration. I’m not currently homeschooling my daughter, but we do incorporate a lot of projects into our time together at home. Lori’s book made me realize that I really needed to make some changes to my daughter’s art space to bring it more in line with her needs as an older child (now eight) doing more sophisticated projects and artwork.
My idea was to increase my daughter’s actual useable surface area, while also increasing her storage for materials and giving her a little bit of room for display. Oh, and I was hoping to be able to fit all of this into an area of our living room that is about four and a half feet wide, and to do it using only stuff that we already had around the house. The medical school family bit also means that our budget is tight and that there isn’t a lot of extra money to spend on cute organizational tools, fun though they might be.
I settled on moving our existing art table to a small section of wall that is adjacent to some built-in bookshelves in our living room. Having her project space in a central area of the house is important to me; I have never been one to keep the living room decor “adult only.” The kids live here too, and I feel strongly that their activities should be folded into the common spaces in our home. Plus, we literally have no where else to put them. We hung small display shelves on the wall above her table, and she immediately filled them with favorite collections, such as her jar of beach glass and a row of pretty minerals in decorative jars. One shelf is dedicated to some clay models that she has been working on (for a diorama about penguins that she wants to make). I also hung a small bulletin board for hanging notes, displaying work in progress or for keeping lists of materials that would be useful to have for completing a project.
I cleared out some no longer needed books from the shelves next to her table, and instead, filled the space with a collection of things that she might need easy access to for creative endeavors of all sorts. There are field guides and reference books, magnifying glasses, science kits recently sent by some friends of ours, and some boxes of paper. But from her perspective, the best part of the newly organized area is the fact that she now has free access to all the household art supplies. Her baskets and suitcases contain “real” paint (good quality acrylics and watercolors), as well as modeling clay, high quality markers and colored pencils and various rolls of tape; all materials I may have been more cautious with in the past. In her book, Lori makes mention of the fact that children respond to trust about their ability to use high quality materials responsibly by producing high quality work and I am already finding this to be true.
Here is a list of what I’ve included in Mariam’s project space:
pencils, hand sharpeners and erasers
colored pencils, markers and crayons
modeling clay and tools
stickers, labels, tape, balls of string, clothespins
paper, cardstock, stationery and bits of cardboard
paint and brushes
field guides, reference books, plant presses in two sizes
a bug house, magnifying glasses
glue sticks and liquid glues
oil and chalk pastels
card games
a “project journal” where she can keep track of project ideas, make sketches, take notes
a basket for storage of work in progress and for materials being used in the space on a more temporary basis
In all, we are already finding that having easy access to a variety of materials that are well-organized can do great things for productivity, enjoyment of creating and for clean-up too. My daughter is encouraged by her independence with using these materials and, I’m pretty pleased to have been able to find a way to incorporate a more organized project space into our small living room by making good use of what was already here.
I love giving personalized gifts to people. It is the little things that lets that someone know just how special they are… Randi from Swoon! is with us today to share the lovely letter writing kit that she created for a young writer in her life. Oh, and if you have a moment, you may want to go and “meet” the newest budding author in her family, Jack. Congratulations Randi!
Hello, it’s Randi again from Swoon! I don’t know about you, but I still get excited when I sit down to write a letter. While most of my email correspondence is on the go and less than well-written, taking the time to write an actual letter forces me to slow down. I take a little more time with my words, taking care to include all that’s on my mind. The act of actually writing more than a few lines with a pen on paper can be rare these days!
Most kids love to write and send letters, no matter what age they are. Recently, my girls have been wanting to send their drawings and “writing” to family members that are far away. The idea that loved ones will receive it in a few days is almost like magic to them.
Because I love to write, and happen to be obsessed with stationary, paper, and the like, I thought a custom letter writing box would make a great gift for my niece, who just turned 8. I’m not the first to make one of these boxes, but I thought I would give you a peek into mine. I hope it inspires you to pass on the love of letter writing to a child in your life! You can also search the web for “letter writing kit” to see some of the other lovely ideas out there. If you don’t have the space for a large writing center in your home, keeping a box like this stocked and on the shelf could be a nice alternative. I custom designed everything in my kit, but don’t worry if that’s not your thing! You can find everything you need at a variety of stores.
The things I included in my box were:
blank address labels
custom return address labels (you can make these using avery labels and your computer)
3 different colors of envelopes
blank hang tags
pretty tape (to seal envelopes)
pencils and colored pencils
pencil sharpener
pretty cards (blank inside)
blank folded cards (can be bought or made from card stock)
custom letter writing stationary (I printed my niece’s name at the top of textured white paper using my computer)
fun stickers
two lined notebooks for journaling or list making
I found the box itself in the wood section of the craft store. You can usually find a variety of wooden boxes in various sizes. I wanted to add a special touch to the gift so I decided to line the box with pretty fabric. I trimmed the fabric to size and attached a few ribbons to hold pencils with my sewing machine. I also sewed an envelope to the fabric to hold labels and stamps. I used a hot glue gun to carefully attach the fabric to the inside of the box. For a simpler approach, you could use pretty paper to line your box and include a fun pencil case or bag for the smaller items in your box.
Learning to read and write is a complex process that requires many different skills. Although it is complex, it can be a joyful and empowering experience for children…
Mastering the letter sounds and how to sound out words are important aspects of learning how to read. Yet, there are certain words that just don’t “play fair.” These “unfair” words are not intuitively phonetic, which makes them very difficult to read and write. For these tricky words it is best for children to simply “memorize” them visually so that they can begin to automatically and successfully read and write them. Many of these words are frequently used in reading and writing, so it is helpful to give children a nice repertoire of words that they have mastered.
One simple way to achieve this is by playing sight word bingo. This game is appropriate for children who have already mastered all of the letter sounds and are starting to read simple words.
Print out two copies of the game board, so that you can cut up the words of one and use them to pick out of a box or a bag.
For younger readers you can pick a word, read it out loud, and then give it to them so that she can visually match the word to their board.
For more advanced readers, pick a word and read it out loud. Do not give them the word, instead encourage them to match it through your auditory dictation.
If I had to pick a theme to describe the phase of learning my girls are in, it would definitely be “imaginative play!” As young children, they naturally approach the world in a playful way and it’s very rewarding to see them learn new things through the act of play. I used to downplay the importance of imaginative play as a learning tool, but have come to realize how powerful it can be for children of all ages. It seems to be a vehicle for them to learn about a variety of subjects in a very natural way.
I don’t always direct the dramatic play in our home, but a few times a week I like to create a few open ended projects that I can leave out for the girls to discover. It’s always fun, and sometimes surprising, to see how they approach something I set out for them to play with. I love giving them projects that have no expected outcome and allow them to play with the tools and materials however they want.
Lately my girls have shown an interest in toy cars/trucks and I wanted to give them a place to explore and express their new found fascination. I spontaneously made one of these play mats one day using things I had on hand a few months ago. It was so well loved that it had to be thrown out and replaced with the one you see here! Do you have a child who would like to build their own city? Here’s what you need:
For the play mat: White foam core, Japanese masking tape (now sold at Target for $5!), scissors, and a black sharpie. For the city building blocks: unfinished wood blocks (found at craft stores), acrylic paint, and a paint brush. You can also use regular building blocks that you already own.
To make the mat: Use two pieces of tape about an inch apart to make a road. Place roads all over your board, connecting them in various ways as they would be in a real city. Leave open spaces around the board for buildings. The tape looks best when it’s cut off the roll, rather than torn. This step would be fun for older kids who want to help with the “city planning!” Once you’re satisfied with the placement of the roads, draw a dashed line down the center of each road and add any other embellishments you’d like.
To make the city building blocks: Paint two coats of acrylic paint on each block using your paintbrush. It worked best for me to finish three sides of a block at a time and allow to dry before flipping over and finishing the other three sides. Allow to dry completely before using. My kids are old enough to not place things like blocks in their mouths, but if you have a younger baby you may want to leave the blocks unfinished or use some blocks in your existing collection of toys!
I like to set out the mat with a bowl containing the blocks and a bowl of cars. It’s fun to see what your kids will build! My daughter loves to sort colors, so she is naturally drawn to the colored blocks. Some small animals and figurines often find themselves in the mix of this game too!
My four year old daughter recently completed her first year of preschool and she loves to write. She’s still working on getting the formation of her letters and loves to practice. Her favorite thing to do is trace letters. She’s constantly asking me to write the alphabet so she can trace over it. While I love seeing her write, I was getting a little tired of writing letters all day long!
This led me to the idea of a chalkboard writing set that she could use over and over. It was a little time consuming to make, but very simple and worth the effort! Each wooden circle has an uppercase letter of the alphabet on one side and the corresponding lowercase letter on the other. The letters are painted with chalkboard paint, so they can be easily erased with a paper towel and used continuously.
Would you like to make a set of your own? Here’s what you need:
26 3″ wooden discs (mine were $0.19 each at the local craft store)
Stencil letters on to wooden discs with pencil, uppercase on one side, lowercase on the other.
Paint! This is the part that takes a while. You will need at least two coats of chalkboard paint to get the coverage you need (I did 3). The instructions on my paint bottle said to wait an hour between coats, but my coats dried fairly quickly on the unfinished wood surface. If you don’t enjoy painting or have an unsteady hand, you could also try working with chalkboard contact paper. I haven’t tried it, but you could stencil your letters on to the paper, cut out, and stick on for a similar effect.
Let the paint cure for 24 hours and then “season” it by rubbing white chalk lightly on the surface of the letters.
I made a small bag to keep our letters in, but a plastic bag would work great too! Make sure to include a piece of chalk, a paper towel, and a letter chart with your set, and you’re ready to trace!
The Playful Learning Spaces Workshop has really taken on a life of its own. I have had the pleasure of working with many extraordinary mothers, teachers, and caregivers from all over the world, creating spaces for the children in our lives.
To that end, I thought it would be nice to share some of the incredible writing spaces that have been created by participants of the Playful Learning Spaces Workshop. I feel honored to have the opportunity to work with such creative and dedicated people.
One of our favorite books isAll the Colors We Are: The Story of How We Get Our Skin Color by Katie Kissinger. It explains, in very simple terms, how our ancestors, the sun, and melanin determine our skin color. All the Colors We Are takes us into a world where we celebrate the many shades of our skin and help children build a positive self-identity. At the end of the book, there are even a few activity ideas including one on identifying your own shade of skin and mixing paint to create a self-portrait.
1. Start out by talking about self-portraits. Give your child a mirror and ask her to look carefully at her eyes, nose, and lips as well as the shape of her face, paying particular attention to the lines and details that she sees. Another helpful resource to use here is Mobility of Expression, which is a portfolio of self-portraits done by children in theschools of Reggio Emilia.
2. Using a thin Sharpie marker, encourage your child to create a black line drawing of her face. Keep those mirrors handy so she can look back and forth between herself and her drawing!
3. Next, begin the task of mixing paints to match the color of her skin. You can follow the suggestion in the book by combining brown, black, white, and/or red to get a shade of brown that matches your skin. But if you want to try and make brown from scratch, we found this recipe on the Internet and have had great success with it. Be sure to spend time talking about how no one is really black, brown, white, or red. Rather, we are all different shades of brown!
By the way, this is also a great lesson in color theory because this part of the project is a color-mixing extravaganza! We love doing this activity, because children get to create a self-portrait that includes their own special color that they’ve mixed all by themselves. And they’ll soon find out their special color won’t be the same as anyone else’s color.
4. Finish up the activity by naming that special color! At the end of All the Colors We Are, you will find a beautiful list of creative words to describe the color of our skin, and of course we encourage children to come up with their own unique color name. We love that by naming their own color, children are empowered to describe themselves in whatever way they choose!
child-size binoculars | magnifying glass | collection jar | bug catcher
slate chalkboard | blackboard chalk | eraser
shell collection | magnifying glass | shell guide
blank comic book | comic template
animal track fundana | child-size binoculars | magnifying glass
