Patriots going into battle. Note the broken golf-club, hockey stick and broomstick that are all standing in as rifles… Who needs play guns, anyways? They’ll improvise! So what now? It is hard to not end up with scripted toys. But I’ve found that this really doesn’t hinder a child when you are encouraging their creativity […]
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From Trash to Treasure
(Xander at 3yo enjoying a homemade shield that he asked us to fashion from an egg carton and his lance from an old packing tube.) As we’ve been talking about, encouraging our kids in open-ended play is a great way for them to learn at their own pace as well as develop important creative and […]
Kitchen Play
Well, as we start to wrap up this little series on open-ended play, I had to include some ways we’ve incorporated everyday things we have around the house into our play and learning. There are so many toys to be found in the kitchen! Outside of the many practical and original uses for items found […]
Open-Ended Costumes
[Open-Ended Play Series, Part 7] PART 1 PART 2 PART 3 PART 4 PART 5 PART 6 (Rich getting baptized by fire into our ‘style’ of homeschooling at my baby sister’s Egyptian Feast.) Our family LOVES to play dress-up. still… Growing up, we had a toybox chock full of wonderful dress-up clothes. Most of the items were […]
Play Silks: Inspiring Creativity
[Open-Ended Play Series, Part 6] I love play silks!!! They are right up there with blocks and, to date, have not resulted in bruises or bloodshed… So maybe that alone, would place them above blocks. And actually now that we’ve owned ours for several years and are getting a bit further into our homeschool journey, I’m […]
Block Play: Building a Child’s Mind
What are you able to build with your blocks? Castles and palaces, temples and docks. Rain may keep raining, and others go roam, But I can be happy building at home. Let the sofa be mountains, the carpet be sea, There I’ll establish a city for me… …Now I have done with it, down let […]