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Sunshine75 11:27 AM 10-18-2013
At what age do you start transitioning a child to play independantly on their own for a short amount of time? Think I need to start doing that with my 13 month old dcb attention seeker who is now being naughty to get attention when I am not interacting with him.
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Shell 11:33 AM 10-18-2013
I personally start from day one. If they are an infant, they go on the play mat close enough to see the other children, but far enough away to stay safe. I think the earlier the better! I also find the younger ones learn from watching the older ones, and sometimes we (adults) just get in the way of their natural learning and play experiences.
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Neekie 11:36 AM 10-18-2013
Originally Posted by mrsmichelle:
I personally start from day one. If they are an infant, they go on the play mat close enough to see the other children, but far enough away to stay safe. I think the earlier the better! I also find the younger ones learn from watching the older ones, and sometimes we (adults) just get in the way of their natural learning and play experiences.
Yep, I agree. This is what I do, too.
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Sunshine75 11:41 AM 10-18-2013
I should add that I only have two little ones and the other is 8 mos. old so I truly am his playmate. I am using today as the day to start playing by himself since younger one is gone. Children play independently until about three anyways but until the younger one gets a little older to join him it is him and him alone.
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dingledine 02:45 PM 10-18-2013
Day one.
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daycare 03:01 PM 10-18-2013
Also day one...

My under 2.5 crowd-----I lead the play for about 10 minutes. During this time I will give them vocabulary so that they know what they are playing with, show them how to play with their friends and set my expectations. After this 10 minutes pass, I then remove myself from the activity. I let them continue to play with it on their own or allow them to move on and explore on their own, letting them decide what they want to play with. I leave them be until I see that they need my assistance, which I will wait for them to approach me.

If they can't seem to function without me, I say, go play. they come back, I redirect them, go play. I do this in timed increments throughout the day.

As time goes on, the more that I am able to remove myself from their play, I see them more cooperative, more engaged to what they are doing and they are not hitting me up every 5 seconds to show me something, or tell me something.

One thing that I have found effective for my kids is to have them play with an activity at the table. Everyone. I then sit in a chair near them and read a book. Now all of my attention is on the book and everyone. I don't get them chasing me to show me stuff, asking a million questions or trying to get my attention. They are too busy with their hands playing with the (fill in blank) and too busy with their ears listening to the story that I am reading.

My under 2 crowd sit in their high-chair when we do this, or I will do it when they are sleeping....
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Sunshine75 03:42 PM 10-18-2013
Good idea with the table activities and book reading including little ones in high chair. This will be especially helpful for those that don't want to sit still long enough to let me read to them but still want me to give them all my attention on whatever they want to do and thus no longer giving me a chance to read to the others.
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Tags:milestones, transitioning - to self reliance
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