Originally Posted by daycarediva:
I agree, and although my space is neat and organized by type of activity, I allow free range choice/play. Yesterday a child was counting the manipulative counters I have in the block 'center', and another child was counting out pieces of pizza in the kitchen 'center' and another child was counting out hats in the dress up 'center'. So those things happen quite spontaneously in early childhood.
My son's prek has centers(he is now in K and went to prek 2 mornings/week to get him used to being away from me).The teacher would set up 6 areas of toys, and set a timer, when the timer went off, the children would rotate to the next center. No moving toys, no continuing to play. It helped (imo) to prep him for school because of the constant teacher led 'do this/do that', but that's not for me.
Exactly, you just said it better than I managed lol
If I "labeled" by specific toy areas I'd have to make a list at least a page long to define what all a child *could* learn in that space as opposed to the one expected thing they are being set up to experience.
For example, my kitchen corner would have to labeled:
Home center
Occupational center
Imaginative Play center
Free Play center
Teamwork center
Shapes center
Colors center
Counting center
Manipulatives center
Gross Motor Skills center
Fine Motor Skills center
Social Skill Building center
Sensory center
Etc. Etc. Etc. Etc
I expect the kids in my care to get any/all of those things out of that one space depending on who they are as individuals. For one child the colors of all the food might click, for another the texture of the corn on the cob over the peas might, while another might work the heck out of their GMS by opening and closing all the doors, or another work their FMS by twisting the small knobs and carefully placing pot lids and using utensils.
As an adult I don't want to put them in that space labeled one specific way and limit their abilities to experience it in other ways.
If parents asked why there were no defining labels I would explain with the above.