Monday, September 19, 2011

My New Brain Child

See this?  This is my new brain child: the activity table.  What is my activity table?  It's a table in my kitchen with a bunch of different activities for the kids to do on it.  The idea is that while I am working with one child, the other children can play with activities from the table.  I will switch out the activities each week.  I have compiled 5 weeks' worth of activities to rotate through.  Here we have week 1's activities.  They are as follows:
Wooden blocks (the white bag in the top left)
Cutting Tray (right in front of the blocks)
Coloring books (under the cutting tray.  These will actually be a permanent fixture on the table but I'll rotate through our bazillion coloring books)
Magnet Tray (in front of the cutting tray)
Littlest pet shop sets (top middle)
Marble Race (The tub under the pet shops)
Sequence for Kids (front and center)
Rush Hour (on top of sequence)
Animal Dominoes (also on top of sequence)
Laptop (bottom right, with pet shop toys on top of it because Trent put them there right before I snapped the picture)
Laugh and Learn Piggy Bank (top right)
What you can't really see around the piggy bank are:
A shoe tieing set to practice tieing and
Paint with water books

Today, our first day using it, went GREAT!  The kids played with a variety of toys.  All 3 of them played with the blocks and the paint with water books at one point or another.  The cutting tray, magnet tray, pet shops, shoe tieing, and piggy bank were also used at one point or another by at least one child.  I tried to put a variety of activities on the table each week from different categories:
Electronic toys (lap tops, leapsters, videos, ect.)
Tot Trays (cutting tray, glueing tray, pom pom transferring, ect.)
Play toys (pet shops, blocks, ect.)
Teaching toys (piggy bank, alphabet soup, puzzles, ect.)
Art supplies (painting, drawing, coloring, clay, ect.)
and Board Games (sequence, candy land, chutes and ladders, ect.)

If any of you are familiar with my children you will know that they are not big TOY players.  Their poor toys sit in neglect most of the time because they would rather play outside, watch TV, or play on computers.  This is one of my sneaky attempts to encourage them to actually PLAY with their toys.  So far, so good!

2 comments:

Lynette said...

Excellent idea!!

For now, I don't have to do anything in particular to keep the kids busy while I'm working one-on-one (especially since A takes his naps during school). Your kids will learn to entertain themselves -- eventually -- without you having to set things up. I think. :) I thought L would need more structure (but she's kindergarten-age) and she really doesn't. She just plays in her room or draws in the kitchen while I'm working with the other two. I don't know what A will be like once his morning nap is gone. Eek! :)

Nana said...

Clever. This will encourage their creativity and the activities are developmentally appropriate.