Making Indoor Play, Fun!

“We can never have a noble race of men until we have a noble race of mothers.” - Elbert Hubbard

Making Indoor Play, Fun!

9 October 2008 146 views 2 Comments

I think we moms are always looking for a solution to the age-old problem of wanting our sweet cherubs to find something creative and engaging to do without our constant involvement.

We adore our children. At the same time, we are thrilled when our preschooler discovers that building towers or marching zoo animals around the living room is great fun, long enough for us to check email or pay some bills.

The key is to find a way that your home takes away a lot of the work for you. You don’t have to build an elaborate fort or give in to hours of dress-up. But you do have to move some furniture around. What? I know you may be very attached to the idea that the toys are neatly stored in a beautiful playroom upstairs or in toy boxes in your child’s room. Don’t you find it true that many of those toys find their way into your common living areas?

It’s time to be real. If you have children under the age of five, think about creating a beautiful play area in your common area. Children are not drawn to a room of toys down the hall or up the stairs, away from you and the hub-bub of family life.

Choose some low wooden shelves and sort toys into baskets for easy clean-up. Now, when your sweetie pie asks you to “play with her” you can say, “yes, I’ll be the old woman washing dishes and you can be my little girl who is picking flowers.” She’ll be able to find toys right where you are and you can continue to do your tasks and engage in simple pretend. Children like to go away from us and then return to us. There’s an eb and flow to their play. Having their play area close and in the central part of the home allows them to feel safe and secure for longer periods of time.

What are some other ways you’ve found to help your children play more autonomously? Please share your tips!

2 Comments »

Shara said:

The title caught my attention… but, guess what? Because of our small space, we already have the play kitchen in my kitchen and all the toys in the living room. And so I can respond from experience. This definitely works! Between the play kitchen and the (completely accessible and acceptable) pots-lids-tupperware-plastic bowl cabinet, I can cook, or make lunch, or clean up from breakfast while my son is totally entertained, engaged and supervised. And if I can occasionally comment on what he’s doing, or add material (a spoon, or some play food) and talk about what he’s doing and what I’m doing to add to the fun and keep his play going without interfering (something I know is important as an early childhood educator). What could be better… for him or for us? We get to be together as a family! Yipee for tiny houses

# 12 October 2008 at 7:14 pm

Emily said:

Great discussion.

1. Relax … I think part of the reason toy rooms are out of the way is to reduce the inevitable clutter and “mess” involved in play. Relaxing about how my home looks makes it easier to let the cushions and pillows around us become rocket ships, clouds and moons.

2. Bring a little play in each room. The lines between play and practical are loosely drawn in our home. Basically, if it’s at child level, they can play with it … empty wooden boxes, boxes filled with a toy or two, cabinets with items that don’t break, books they read, an ottoman with toys, etc … in each room I think, where will the boys play and what will they play with?

anyway, i love this topic because i find the more i open my home to imagination to play, the more i open my own heart to my inner/eternal childhood