Empowering Parents
Sharing Playfulness
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Children are curious creatures. They explore, question, and wonder,
and by doing so, learn. From the moment of birth we are drawn to new things.
When we are curious about something new,
we want to explore it. And while exploring we discover.
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What do you know about?
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Child Development
The importance of Play
Brain Development
The importance of Emotional and Mental
Wellbeing
• The importance of Physical Wellbeing
• Early Learning Possibilities
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Stop Keeping This a Secret!!!!
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15 x 36 + Quality + Home Learning
= Best Start
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What do you see?
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If a child stays curious,
he will continue to
explore and discover.
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Explore and Discover
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Experiment and Investigate
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Imitate and Celebrate
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Practice and Achieve
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What is most pleasurable
about discovery
and mastery is sharing it with
someone else.
We are social creatures.
The most positive reinforcement —
the greatest reward and
the greatest pleasure —
comes from the adoring
and admiring gaze, comments
and support from someone
we love and respect.
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Imagine and Create
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For too many children, curiosity fades.
Curiosity dimmed is a future denied.
Our potential — emotional, social, and cognitive —
is expressed through the quantity and quality of our
experiences.
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The C.I.D. Approach
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If I nvestigate,
I will discover
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When I iscover,
I am Learning
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If I am urious,
I will investigate
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Think of a Building
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The less-curious child may
make fewer new friends,
join fewer social groups,
explore less and create
less.
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In the Kitchen Drawer!
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Fear kills curiosity. When the child's world is chaotic or when
he is afraid, he may not like novelty. He will seek the familiar,
staying in his comfort zone,
unwilling to leave and explore new things.
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Wee Ideas
Play and Stay Sessions
Singing Circles
Wee Bags of Discovery
Top Tip Posters/ Buggy Books
Maths Bags
Art Cards
Cheeky Challenge
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Some other Wee Ideas
Tickle
Giggle Play
Yarn
Bombing
Stitch and Bitch
Tea, Talk,
Toast,
Tuesdays
Pimp My Ride
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Ready Steady Restore
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Tickle Giggle Bump
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Singing Together Sessions
• Consider the range of songs
you enjoy with your babies and
toddlers. How visual do you
make them?
• Rhymes and songs encourage
many basic skills in movement,
speech, cognition and
perception.
• What learning potential do you
set up through the ‘song sets’
you use?
• The use of repetition, rhythm
and rhyme support the
development of language.
• Remember to make your
rhyme time fun, interactive and
as visual and active as
possible!
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• Nursery Rhymes are part of
the oral tradition of language.
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Play and Stay Sessions
Tuning children into learning should be an engaging
experience for all involved, adults and children
creating a learning opportunity in partnership.
Setting the scene for enjoying
books and stories should never
be a brief or undervalued activity.
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Children being active agents
not passive recipients
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Find a way to catch a child’s
imagination, to create a new
‘world’ which excites all
involved.
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Emotional climates have
strong correlation with
achievement
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Allow children to be drawn into an experience by
using your voice, a piece of music,
a piece of stimuli (an ‘alien’ and funny voice!)
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Offer children reason to remain emerged, sit back and let them lead.
Praise their engagement and success.
In the story the aliens ‘steal’ underpants.
We hid them around the room in small
and large envelopes for the children to find.
Then we waited.
There were 41 children
Involved in this experience.
Each as excited as this little
girl, eager to wave their pants
in the air and describe them
with luscious language.
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“Look, spotty pants!,
I’ve found spotty pants.
Big red ones with spots!”
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Even when we think there will be no response,
look to enable a child, even the youngest to ‘switch on’
Be bold,
step away
and allow
the children
to take
ownership
and watch
the learning
transpire.
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Give time for a child
to respond, then
extend their
engagement in an
appropriate way, by
repetition,
new suggestion or
similar experience
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Chatter Natter
• Use the telephone, microphone
and voice changer to talk to your
little one rather than just talking.
• Ask them simple questions, like a
wee interview.
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• Suggest you sing a line of a song
then they sing the next line, keep
taking turns until the end. Make
sure they know most of the words,
help them if they get stuck.
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Chatter Natter
• Walk round the room and name
something you see, then ask them to
name something. Repeat a few
times.
• This time walk round the room and
give a little clue,
“I see something soft”, invite them to
guess what you see. Then suggest
they give you a clue.
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• Challenge them by saying
something like “name a blue thing”
or name something higher then the
cushion”.
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Push and Pull
Let your little one play around
with the various cars in the
bag.
Talk about them what they look
like, what they are, what they
do.
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Encourage your child to push
them and pull them on different
surfaces. A magazine, a table,
a carpet.
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Push and Pull
Can they take the car apart?
Even the tyres come off!
How far can your child make the
car ‘drive’?
Let your little one take the car to
pieces then build it back again.
Offer help when required.
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Guess how quickly you can take
them a part and build them back
up.
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Bonding Time
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“I’m great for
tickles and giggles”
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Learning to Read
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“we can help your
baby learn
to read!”
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Let’s Chat
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“I can help encourage
your little
one to talk”
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Lets Set the Table
Mango loves to play with kitchen utensils,
His favourite is spoons. Let your little one
help Mango play with the spoons in the
bag, talk about them, describe them.
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Why not let Mango find any other spoons,
encourage your little one to show him
where they are! Can your child talk about
the spoons with Mango?
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Challenge your child to tell Mango what all
the spoons can be used for, why they are
different to the forks and knives.
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Can they find the smallest and biggest
spoons?
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Lets Set the Table
Mango likes to set the table. Encourage
your child to take some cutlery out of the
drawer and use it to set the places at the
table. Or put a couple of sheets of paper or
towels down on the floor and set the ‘picnic’
up for snack.
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Count out the cutlery for each ‘setting’ then
place them out ready for the plates.
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Pour some pasta pieces into a bowl and
some sugar or salt in another. Suggest
your child and Mango try to spoon the
contents into another bowl or onto a plate.
Use each spoon and see which the find
easier to use.
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Lets Sort
Buttons loves to sort things out! His favourite
it buttons. Put a big pile of buttons on the floor
and let your little one help Buttons sort them
into piles.
- think about the colour of the button
- sort all the same sizes
- and all the same shapes
- are they plastic or metal
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Encourage your child to help Joe sort the
jewels into different categories. Big and small,
by colour or shape.
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Suggest Buttons helps you both sort the
washing! Into piles of each family members or
white, colours or towels and clothes.
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Lets Sort
Go a hunt around the house and find
things that Buttons and your child may be
able to sort out. Perhaps put a basket of
toys together and then sort them into
categories such as animals, characters
and cars.
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Go to the park and take Buttons with you.
Challenge your child to find a group of
leaves, all the same then pretend Buttons
is making sure they all go together.
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Find some twigs and sort them by length
if you can find a few petals or flowers
great. Or find a set of things that are
made of wood, metal or fabric! (look for
swings, benches, your clothes!)
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Training or Resources
Training
Experiential Play
Rooms 31/32
Hydepark Business Centre
60 Mollinsburn Street
Glasgow
G21 4SF
0141 557 3304
Resources
Wonderbox
Rooms 31/32
Hydepark Business Centre
60 Mollinsburn Street
Glasgow
G21 4SF
0141 557
www.wonderbox.co.uk
office@experientialplay.com
info@wonderbox.co.uk
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www.experientialplay.com
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