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Daycare Center and Family Home Forum>Kendallina - No Toy Week?
SunflowerMama 01:07 PM 12-13-2010
How's your no toy week going so far? Are they staying busy?? What's keeping them most entertained?? I'm very curious to hear all about it because ours is next week 
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kendallina 04:32 PM 12-13-2010
Yay! I'm so glad you're doing it too!
So, today we had a snow day, which means that preschool was canceled..lol. BUT, I did have one girl here anyways since her mom works and she uses me more for childcare then preschool.
And, so far (it was only this girl and my DD), it was great! We actually had a much longer free play today about 2 hours worth, split up into 1 hour each time. And, having 2 hours I was worried that she or my DD would ask for toys or get bored and upset. Neither of those things happened.
My DD (she's just turned 2)spent a lot of her time pretending the paper bags were purses and putting blocks and other things in them and walking around happily. She also rolled in the cotton balls that we had (then picked each one up dutifully- there weren't really very many!).
I also taped a cardboard piece to the table that was shaped like a gutter and they both enjoyed rolling balls down it into baskets.
The 3-yr old dcg that I had was great! She really seemed to understand the idea: that we weren't going to play with toys this week. We'd play with things from around the house. And that if there were toys that we wanted we would make them instead. At one point she wanted a cup to pretend to drink out of and then started making one from paper (and she needed some assistance with this).
A couple of things I'm not sure on. I don't know how much assistance to provide. Yes, I would like them to understand that we don't need toys and that we can make much of what we need. But, they are 3-yrs old and don't yet have the skills to make everything that they might want to make. Or they may not even have any idea on how to go about making something. I want to be able to follow their lead and inspire them, but I don't want to DO IT for them. Any thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated.
Another note: The mess that we made was substantially greater! And there were only two of them-imagine it with 5 or more!
Thanks for asking, I'll keep everyone updated.
So, today we had a snow day, which means that preschool was canceled..lol. BUT, I did have one girl here anyways since her mom works and she uses me more for childcare then preschool.
And, so far (it was only this girl and my DD), it was great! We actually had a much longer free play today about 2 hours worth, split up into 1 hour each time. And, having 2 hours I was worried that she or my DD would ask for toys or get bored and upset. Neither of those things happened.
My DD (she's just turned 2)spent a lot of her time pretending the paper bags were purses and putting blocks and other things in them and walking around happily. She also rolled in the cotton balls that we had (then picked each one up dutifully- there weren't really very many!).
I also taped a cardboard piece to the table that was shaped like a gutter and they both enjoyed rolling balls down it into baskets.
The 3-yr old dcg that I had was great! She really seemed to understand the idea: that we weren't going to play with toys this week. We'd play with things from around the house. And that if there were toys that we wanted we would make them instead. At one point she wanted a cup to pretend to drink out of and then started making one from paper (and she needed some assistance with this).
A couple of things I'm not sure on. I don't know how much assistance to provide. Yes, I would like them to understand that we don't need toys and that we can make much of what we need. But, they are 3-yrs old and don't yet have the skills to make everything that they might want to make. Or they may not even have any idea on how to go about making something. I want to be able to follow their lead and inspire them, but I don't want to DO IT for them. Any thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated.
Another note: The mess that we made was substantially greater! And there were only two of them-imagine it with 5 or more!
Thanks for asking, I'll keep everyone updated.
SunflowerMama 05:37 PM 12-13-2010
Sounds like the first day went great! I'll be interested to see how tomorrow goes with all the kids back (if school is back 
). A few of my parents have been great about bringing random recycled items over the last few days so I think they'll be set. I have 4 that are 4yrs old so I'm hoping they can kind of take the lead and come up with some cool things to do with the items.
Hope the rest of the week goes well. Can't wait to hear about it!!
). A few of my parents have been great about bringing random recycled items over the last few days so I think they'll be set. I have 4 that are 4yrs old so I'm hoping they can kind of take the lead and come up with some cool things to do with the items.Hope the rest of the week goes well. Can't wait to hear about it!!
kendallina 05:42 PM 12-13-2010
Originally Posted by SunflowerMama:
Sounds like the first day went great! I'll be interested to see how tomorrow goes with all the kids back (if school is back). A few of my parents have been great about bringing random recycled items over the last few days so I think they'll be set. I have 4 that are 4yrs old so I'm hoping they can kind of take the lead and come up with some cool things to do with the items.
Hope the rest of the week goes well. Can't wait to hear about it!!
I think 4-yr olds will do great! How fun!Sounds like the first day went great! I'll be interested to see how tomorrow goes with all the kids back (if school is back
). A few of my parents have been great about bringing random recycled items over the last few days so I think they'll be set. I have 4 that are 4yrs old so I'm hoping they can kind of take the lead and come up with some cool things to do with the items.Hope the rest of the week goes well. Can't wait to hear about it!!
kendallina 04:19 PM 12-14-2010
Ok- Awesome day today.
One of the things we did today was soo fun! They found a wrapping paper cardboard piece in the room. I suggested that we find something to put down in it and have it come out the other end. Everyone was searching the room for small items. Some suggested popsicle sticks and we tried those. They worked great.
Someone brought over some cotton balls and we tried those, but they got stuck. We thought about some ideas for how to get the cotton balls out, after several attempts, I suggested we tape together some pencils and try to push them out. They all helped to tape the pencils and worked together to put them down the tube. It took several times, but eventually the cotton ball came out! Everyone celebrated and next thing I knew one of the little boys was putting another cotton ball in. He grabbed the pencils and put them in again and again until the cotton ball came out. The children did this several times before being done with it. It was a lot of fun and really, after the first time I didn't have to intervene a lot. Plus, I think the more kinds of activities like this that we do, the more they will get used to thinking on their own and coming up with solutions on their own. Plus, they're still young.
Overall, awesome day. I'm going out for a girls night tonight, so gotta go! But I have more to say and will post tomorrow!
One of the things we did today was soo fun! They found a wrapping paper cardboard piece in the room. I suggested that we find something to put down in it and have it come out the other end. Everyone was searching the room for small items. Some suggested popsicle sticks and we tried those. They worked great.
Someone brought over some cotton balls and we tried those, but they got stuck. We thought about some ideas for how to get the cotton balls out, after several attempts, I suggested we tape together some pencils and try to push them out. They all helped to tape the pencils and worked together to put them down the tube. It took several times, but eventually the cotton ball came out! Everyone celebrated and next thing I knew one of the little boys was putting another cotton ball in. He grabbed the pencils and put them in again and again until the cotton ball came out. The children did this several times before being done with it. It was a lot of fun and really, after the first time I didn't have to intervene a lot. Plus, I think the more kinds of activities like this that we do, the more they will get used to thinking on their own and coming up with solutions on their own. Plus, they're still young.
Overall, awesome day. I'm going out for a girls night tonight, so gotta go! But I have more to say and will post tomorrow!