Ideas for good imaginative play idea websites?

[amayzie]

Hi All- I was doing some looking on pinterest and came across these GREAT webpages... One about 'invitations to play':

http://www.theimaginationtree.com/2012/05/creating-invitations-to-play.html

and on organising toys:

http://www.theimaginationtree.com/2012/05/creating-invitations-to-play.html

So- others might have seen these ideas before- but i'm new to the game- so they are new ideas for me!! Simple perhaps.. but still- simple is best!

If anyone else has some other good websites on play ideas- especially for toddlers/preschoolers then i'd love to see them!

[amayzie]

I also liked this- do's and don't for toys...

http://thelittlestories.com/2011/12/07/toy-shopping-dos-and-donts/

[*Becky*]

great ideas Katy - I love the invitations to play - going to do some of them for sure.

[amayzie]

THe only trouble is that i look at some of them and think- RIGHT! I'm onto that TOMORROW!! Except i figure i should probably wait till hamish is walking- and not eating all the fun 'imaginitive play' stuff... I think i'll start on the toy streamlining...

[Papaya]

Ooo, love the ideas in those invitations to play!

I thought I was quite good already about rotating toys, but after reading that link I think I could be a lot more hardcore. Keen to give it a go

[*Becky*]

I am going to have a go at the play doh, cake cases one with H on tuesday and i have just made a treasure basket for M!!

[amayzie]

Ok- how often should i rotate toys? Today i finally got around to clearing out all of the baby toys and putting aside the stuffed animals. What did his majesty do- started playing with the baby toys like they were the greatest thing ever!! I'll still put those away- BUT it highlighted that i REALLY need to rotate- he has really stopped playing with some of his toys. THat means that he gets into everything else!

So- the above websites had some good ideas for dividing them up and packaging them.. but how often should i change them?

Also- should i rotate things like the duplo and blocks out? Or are they the sort of things I can keep always there? Should i have duplo there and blocks at the same time? or one or the other, not both?

Also- he's 13 months and already has enoguh stuffed animals/toys to sink a ship!! What do you do with them all? I find it hard as i don't want to chuck them as many were gifts... but he doesn't play with many of them...

I really liked the philosophy on the above websites about the toys she calls 'SCLANS' toys focussing on shapes, colours, letters and numbers- I HATE these for babies!! being exposed to text is one thing- but they really don't need the alphabet for AGES!! Today hamish was 'playing' our piano (can you tell i'm trying to encourage the prodigy side! :p ) and he was touching the letters on the front- I thought- 'yes- this is the way we learn about letters!' not in toys that are devoted to that!!

[Papaya]

That Little Stories website suggested every two weeks - but I'm going to start with every week and see how we go. I think I will rotate on Sunday evenings ready for Mon morning.

So I sorted out all of our toys this morning and have divided them into three lots. This week we are starting with:


Ride on cow               M
Set of three large balls       M
Tin whistle                       M
Three piece puzzle       T
Container of stars       P/T
Two mid-size cars       P
Bead threading toy       T
Crayon set                       T
Stacking bath toys       T
Set of small toy chairs       T/P

She also has a "story mat" with cushions, soft toys and her book shelf, which will stay. Not sure yet whether I will start putting out fewer books and rotating them too She has heaps of soft toys on this mat but really does play pretend with them - dressing up, feeding, reading stories to them etc. The only other thing staying at this stage is her marble run, which is attached to her shelf. She only has one set of blocks, and I'm planning to rotate it.

Know what you mean about the baby stuff - I have left a few still. Eg, she has a few nice quality teething or rattle type things that I am leaving because a) she is super chewy atm with canines coming through and I'm hoping to encourage her to go back to chewing on them rather than inappropriate things, like me and b) I can put the rattles together with a tin or two to make a sort of music set.

I have to admit we have a couple of SCLAN type stuff but it is multi-skill based I think - like a shape sorter, it's practising fine motor skills. And F definitely has a vocab of 100 words and more than two word sentences, which seems to be when he says you can start to intro them.

Ooo, I feel all virtuous and organised now, this is great! We'll see how long it lasts

[koe2moe]

Katy, thanks for sharing these.  I have come across the website before but never really had time to look. 

I thought about rotating toys but DS rotates what he plays regularly also but i am a bit lazy and need to rearrange things to have storage for the toys, but Nuala, thanks for sharing that,too.

Are u all going to have all these supplies for invitation to play?  Jars and jars of art supplies, etc?  Hw to do that practically?  I dont like mess myself, so perhaps i need to join in for those sensory plays to get over it myself. 

[amayzie]

I dont like mess myself, so perhaps i need to join in for those sensory plays to get over it myself.

LOL! Perhaps!! I'm sure you can do plenty of stuff with what you have- so if you don't have heaps of craft supplies, you can just put out some. You might find that if you enjoy that style of play option that you can build up your supply gradually- rather than going out and stocking up as if you are running a preschool!!

You could probably use some home cooking supplies too...

[*Becky*]

koe - I don't like mess either
I am planning on one invitation to play for H each week so tomorrow he has the play doh one with the sequins. He is outside loads atm but if it was winter here I would try and do one a day.
By doing one a week I can build up materials slowly and then have them for M. I keep it all in an Art box under my stairs as we do not have enough room to have it all out on shelves.

[amayzie]

and i would THINK that the 'invitation to play' with a 3 year old might actually last a few days. You'll have to take photos!

[Papaya]

Yes, let us know how it goes Becky!

So can I say that this reduced toy thing is already a HUGE success - F has been completely engrossed in her playmat for a good half hour at a time on three occasions now, I couldn't even get her to come and have afternoon tea yesterday which is almost unheard of for her. And clean up yesterday evening took less than a minute

Another great imaginative play initiative here this morning was giving her her car seat to play with - I had taken all the covers off to wash, so the bare seat was just sitting in the living room. And she sat in it, or sat her toys in it, tried to put the seatbelt on and "drove" all sorts of places - to the park, she said, then to the pool...and when she "arrived" we would pretend to be playing at those places. Lots of fun!

[koe2moe]

koe - I don't like mess either
I am planning on one invitation to play for H each week so tomorrow he has the play doh one with the sequins. He is outside loads atm but if it was winter here I would try and do one a day.
By doing one a week I can build up materials slowly and then have them for M. I keep it all in an Art box under my stairs as we do not have enough room to have it all out on shelves.

such good ideas!  I always want to have everything ready at one go and it gets too much! 

I dont like to get my fingers dirty also.  And i think DS got that now needs to be wiped even when there's just a tiny bit of sauce on his finger while eating.  I am not sure if i am up for spaghetti with dye and oil.. *shivers*.  I might try and explore jello one! 

[creations]

Except i figure i should probably wait till hamish is walking- and not eating all the fun 'imaginitive play' stuff...

Hey, this looks lieka  great thread but I only have a minute so haven't read right through yet.
Just wanted to say quickly that (without actually looking at the invitations to play) you don't have to wait.
I often set things up for DS that are very safe, non edible etc.  For example just getting his toy animals out and positioning them all standing up in a different part of the room where he is not expecting them to be so when we get up in the morning he can 'discover' them.
Same with his garage and cars.
Also sometimes I just leave a box (something recycled) in the middle of the room with one of his regular toys inside, an animal, a car, or a soft toy or puppet that he 'never' plays with.  He will notice the new box straight away and begin to explore and then the puppet is discovered and instead of it being dull it is suddenly really funny and interesting and he will spend ages putting it in and out of the box, closing the box, opening etc.
Or just moving two dining chairs together and throwing a blanket over them to create a tunnel.  This either on its own for him to just crawl through or leave it with a few cars or a ball to roll through the tunnel.  He is amazed just by things being in a different place.
It works because all his toys are put away every day so the day is always starting fresh and tidy and anything out of place is very obvious.  And all these things are safe, we already have them and it takes about 2 mins of time just before I go to bed at night (I don't don't his every night or he would end up expecting it and it wouldn't be quite so inviting iyswim).

I'll be back to read the rest of your ideas.