What I learnt from Potty Training

You may have noticed these past few weeks we haven't posted much.  The reason for this is that we have been focusing our efforts on helping Girl to master using the potty.  Our approach (for those who are interested) was to spend one week taking her to the potty every hour although she was still wearing nappies.  Then after this she went into pants and we continued to take her to the potty regularly.  This has worked really well for us and she is now confidently telling us when she wants to go.  The whole process has taken only two weeks.  Girl is 22 months old so by some standards she is quite young but has been very keen to do it and really initiated it herself.  I'm not suggesting this would work in all cases.  In fact, Boy was much later to toilet train and was really scared of the potty and refused to use it.

Now to the title of this post.  What I learnt from Potty Training.  It has nothing to do with the potty.  We do a lot of activities in our home.  This is no bad thing of course.  The children and I enjoy doing it and they are never forced to do anything.  If they're not in the mood then we don't bother.  However, these last few weeks we've done far fewer planned activities because all our energy has been on remembering to visit the potty at regular intervals.  This has given the children much more 'space' and opportunity to play freely.

Boy has been 'reading' to his sister and some toys.  They made picnics, played shops more, in fact, a great deal more role play than they would usually do and for extended periods of time.  Girl has really shown far more interest in books and has been constantly bringing her favourites to me to be read to.  As a result, her speech and language has progressed.  I have found quite a few photos on the camera that Boy has taken (one below further down).  He has been experimenting on his own without being directed or restricted.

What I have learnt is that sometimes we can be so busy doing things that we don't always really watch what is going on with children's play.  This was re-iterated to me earlier this week when I was having a conversation with our fantastic Nursery Manager Steph.  We were talking about planning for a staff training session next week.  We make use of flipcams at the nursery to assist in observing children.  She had been looking back over some of the videos and had noticed that the vast majority of flipcam film observations are of children doing 'activities' rather than engaged in their own free play.  This isn't that children don't play freely but just that adults are not observing them at these times so much.

 It reminded me of the following poem 'Leisure' by William Henry Davies;

What is this life if, full of care,

We have no time to stand and stare.

No time to stand beneath the boughs

And stare as long as sheep or cows.

No time to see, when woods we pass,

Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.

No time to see, in broad daylight,

Streams full of stars, like skies at night.

No time to turn at Beauty's glance,

And watch her feet, how they can dance.

No time to wait till her mouth can

Enrich that smile her eyes began.

A poor life this if, full of care,

We have no time to stand and stare.

 Our lives can be so busy.  Toddler groups, nursery, activity classes, school, homework, visiting family, shopping.  Our staying in the house for the past few weeks has enabled me to really just sit back and watch the children.  Sometimes you don't need to be doing things with them, just be with them and let them involve you if they want to.  It has been in these times of free play in the past that I have been able to identify when my children have been showing schematic behaviour and then I have been able to plan activities for them in line with this.   Boy starts Primary School this week so the two children will be spending less time together from now on so I'm really pleased that they have been making so much creative play together in recent weeks.  In fact, right now they are hiding behind a chair together, pushing the chair backwards and forwards together and laughing and smiling.  So what I have learnt is simply to watch them more!

Paper Plate Craft #3 Spinning Paints

Girl has a strong Rotation schema (see here for schema information) and I was discussing this with a colleague a few weeks back.  We were trying to think of activities for children with rotational schema and I remembered I had heard mention of using salad spinners to make patterns and designs using paint.  I can't remember where I've seen this - probably on a kids art programme as a child.  I haven't actually read any instructions on this but we decided to experiment with centrifugal force this morning.

You need a salad spinner, paper plates and ready made paints in various colours.  I cut round the edge of the plates to make them fit into the basket of the spinner.

Then we squirted blobs of paint onto the plates.  Boy was keen to use all the colours we had!

Then spin it for a short time.  Girl loved this bit!  She kept saying 'my do, my do, faster, faster!'  Great stuff!

We did quite a few different ones and mixed some colours too to make pinks and purples.  The results were really good and Boy was quite interested in how it works.  An opportunity to talk about physics.

We ran out of plates and had to take a quick trip to the shop to get some more.  It was a really popular activity with my children and I plan to take the salad spinner into nursery later this week to let the other children have a go too.  Happy spinning!
For some more creative ideas click on the button below.  This post is included in the collection of great ideas this week.

Messy Mixing Madness

Yesterday at Pre School some of the children created an activity for themselves, supported by the adults, which involved mixing glue and paint together.  This then evolved into adding all sorts of different colours and glitter and then using the resulting substance to make a picture.  I began wondering if I could develop this idea to use at home or take it a step further at nursery.  I wondered what might happen if I put a whole load of different craft materials and kitchen ingredients on the table along with bowls and spoons and just let the children mix things together in their own way.

I simply went around the kitchen and found the 'ingredients.'  We used, flour, salt, bicarb of soda, vinegar, water, yellow and blue paints and some PVA glue.  I also found some small tubes of glitter.

First Girl decided to use the salt.  She poured some into her dish.  Then she asked for the yellow paint and mixed the two together.

Girl has a rotational schema so she really enjoys mixing.

Some bicarb made the mixture more of a paste and then some vinegar gave it some fizz which was fun!

Boy joined in a few minutes later and spent about 40 minutes gradually changing his mixture and talking to himself and to me about what was happening.

After he'd used up all the ingredients he asked if he could put his hands in and feel it.  I suggested he do this in the sink!

I asked him to describe how it felt and he said 'Smooth, warm, slimy!'  If you decide to have a go at this I offer the following advice; open the windows - it was pretty noxious, cover the surfaces, have plenty of cloths at the ready, be prepared for the mixtures to get everywhere - I had to clean the floors and the walls, wear aprons!

Glorious Mud!

In celebration of International Mud Day on 29th June 2011 and of the really glorious weather here today we have been doing some muddy play!

 

I provided tools, mud, sand, buckets, a wheelbarrow and some sticks.  The children made their own decisions about what to do with the equipment.

First they worked together using the trowels to put mud into an empty bucket.  Then they added some sand.

Then some water and mixed it up into a muddy soup!

Boy said 'it's too runny - we need some more mud to make it thick!'  And he began adding more mud to the mixture until a thick paste was formed.  Fantastic stuff!

Then they chose to work separately.  Girl took her trowel and placed small piles of the mud paste in different parts of the garden.

In the herb garden.

On top of the outdoor drum kit - which is currently out of use since we discovered a Hedgehog nesting in the bushes behind it.  We are being careful not to disturb it's sleep!

Behind the trampoline too!

She enjoyed using the wheelbarrow to transport the mud paste around the garden.

Boy did something altogether different which I hadn't imagined he would do!  I like it when he does surprising and interesting things though.  He carried trowel fulls of mud paste over to one of the paving slabs on the patio and splatted them onto the ground.

He carried on until the whole square was covered (enveloping schema!).

Then he carefully smoothed it down and patted it so it was level.  Then I asked what he was going to do with it and he said.  'Decorate it with flowers and leaves and stuff, you know?'  He went off and picked some things from the garden.

Girl and I went off to play something else and we left him to it to be creative alone.

This is his creation.  A sort of mud and natural material collage I guess.  Interesting to see what happens when children have a chance to do their own thing!

How will you join in in celebrating Mud Day?