Come, Play With Me!

Continuing my summary of Seven Times the Sun, chapter three is about celebrating play. While I still feel I have a long way to go in celebrating morning and mealtime, play is something I have always wholeheartedly embraced:) Growing up in the country, having parents that loved to play with us and encouraged play, and being home schooled all contributed to my brothers and I having lots of time and space to play and explore as children. Creative, imaginative, rich play is one of my greatest desires and highest goals for our children. My greatest fear in this area is to have kids that can only recreate movie scenes in their play--which is a sad reality for many children in our media focused culture. So, I obviously loved this chapter before it even began:)

Here are some simple rituals that she gives to Celebrate Play:

*"Create a circle time each day for 10-20 minutes where you can enjoy singing games, songs and verses. Singing and speaking familiar verses stimulates a child's memory, such an important element of early childhood development."
We have been doing this very loosly after breakfast each morning. I would like to take a few minutes during my Sunday evening planning session (which was done this evening with Anne at a bookstore while big, fat snowflakes fell outside--fun!) and be a little more intentional about which songs and hand games we will work on during the week. So far they love " Head, shoulders, knees and toes (Amelia)", "Ring around the Roses", "This little light of Mine (Sammy)", and "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star".
I also read books aloud during this time.

* Another ritual she talks about is "Natural Wonders". She talks about taking her children for walks and gathering pieces of nature for a "nature table" to display seasonal treasures . Does anyone have a nature table yet? I look so forward to having one when the babes are a bit older. I do always try to take time to point out pieces of nature on our walks, especially now that I take walks with them walking by my side--we have LOTS of time to stop and smell the (snowy) roses:)

She also discusses creating playful, inviting settings to "draw children to interact with their environment." Things like reading nooks, a dress up corner, a kitchen, toys displayed on a low shelf instead of dumped in a toy box. Simple toys out of natural materials rather than intricate, busy toys will enhance a child's imagination and creativity. One of my favorite quotes about toys is , "The less a toy does, the more a child does." One thing that has worked for us, and that I am pretty intentional about, is limiting the amount of toys that our left out. A basket with a few dolls, two puzzles, a basket of books, a big truck and a few small cars, a ring stacker, some wooden nesting bowls, a basket of instruments, and a a little "dress up" corner is what we have at the moment. Then, I just rotate when I see that something isn't being played with. It really helps with keeping things uncluttered and hopefully with them learning that everything has a place.


Then, of course, there is just silliness. Dare I confess some of the silliness that takes place in the midst of our afternoons at home? Just this afternoon I put on quite a ballet performance while we were waiting for lunch to heat up. I don't think they were very impressed but it sure made us all giggle:) I love how parenting helps us all just let go a bit, you know? One wonderful thing about twins is, of course, a constant play mate. And play they do! Chasing, hiding, working, tackling, tickling...it is one of our greatest joys to watch them play with each other.One of the silly songs that I loved from this chapter is a Moroccan Folksong called, "A Ram Sam Sam". It goes, "A ram sam sam, a ram sam sam, Gu-li gu-li gu-li gu-li gu-li ram sam sam......" I have no idea what it means, but it has the word Sam in it and it sure is fun to sing:)

So, here's to celebrating play with the little ones in our lives,
Jen