Taking Time to Play Archives

On the Floor Playing With Him

August 28, 2013 By Deirdre

“Mom, come play Plastic Mat Village with me!” JDaniel would call from the living room. He would have the mat out and a collection of dinosaurs, vehicles, and plans would be spread out all over it. Sometimes I would call back to him that I would be there in a minute. Sometimes I was the perfect time to stop whatever I was doing and join him on the floor. Sometimes it wasn’t the right time and he would start to play on his own.

What sweet memories I now have of laying on my stomach rolling the cars up and down the streets of the village. It always fell to me to protect the town from unwanted dinosaur visits or alien airplanes dive bombing the local restaurant or grocery store to steal sweet potato french fries.

When I would pretend to communicate from the police station to the plain wooden race car about one of the attacks with a crackling voice trying to pretend I was speaking through a walkie talkie my guy would smile. It didn’t keep him from plotting more attacks. In fact in seemed to spur him on. Having me engaged in play with him seemed to fill him with joy.

The funnier I spoke about the strange incidents I was finding as a patrolled Plastic Mat Village the stranger and more fun events he would create for me.

As soon as I moved to a different side of the village, something would happen.Something unpredictable. Sometimes it was caused by invisible relatives of the creatures I could see or they would caused by creatures that would slip up on top of a near by table officially named Dinosaur Mountain. I wasn’t able to capture any of them once. My plane was blocked from leaving the area of above the village. Which worked out well the police station on Plastic Mat Village would never have been big enough to hold them all.

With JDaniel is school full time this year visits to Plastic Mat Village will have to wait until the late afternoon or the weekend. This time I will probably be the one taking out the plastic mat and laying in out in the living room. This time I guess I will be the one gathering the creatures and vehicles ready to play.

I miss him so much when he is in school during the day. Time to lay on the floor and play with him will be something I can look forward too. I am hoping he looks forward to visiting Plastic Mat Village with me. It is a glorious time to get on the floor and play with him for me.

This post is linked to Mrs. Matlock.

Taking Time to Play- Christmas Decorations

December 17, 2012 By Deirdre

Sometimes when we craft I just put out the craft supplies and we just explore ways to use them. JDaniel and I sometimes end up with similar end products and other times we come up with totally different ideas. This is exactly what happen when we made these Christmas decorations.

After gathering a small stack of paper plates I cut out several different shapes that we could work with. I cut them out freehand so some of them look a little off. The star really ended up being a little different looking.

Along with the paper plate cutouts, I put out a hole punch, scissors, glue, pipe cleaners, crayons, foam shapes, wiggly eyes, construction paper and some rick rack on the table. Then invited JDaniel to come and create.We had the best time watching each other work. We didn’t copy each other much, but we both were very much aware of what the other was doing. I loved stopping to admire the lasted additions to his creations. He has such great ideas.

Sometimes I leave JDaniel to craft on his own. As he has gotten busy with preschool and with kindergarten looming on the horizon, I have tried to work on craft with him. If we aren’t working on the same project, we are working on parallel projects a lot now.

JDaniel made a wonderful wreath. He loves the hole punch so, it wasn’t a surprise that he punched a number of holes into his wreath. I love the weaving he did through the holes with a sparkly pipe cleaner. The wiggly eyes make me think that this wreath is taking in all that is around it. The spots of color around the wreath are fun too. JDaniel just kept changing crayon colors and coloring one spot beside the other.

I made a torn paper wreath. I asked JDaniel if he wanted to help me tear the paper and he told me he was busy working on his wreath. An artist must have single focus when he is four.

I moved on to decorating one of the angel plates. It was fun to add a wiggly eye or two here and a pipe cleaner there. I didn’t pre-plan this craft as I had the wreath. I just went with the flow. JDaniel inspired me to loosen up a bit.

We both ended up working on trees as our final project. JDaniel noticed that I was just using green crayons to color my tree. At one point I had six or seven different shades of green in front of me. JDaniel decided he was going to use only blue and purple for his. I don’t think he know the song “Blue Christmas” ,but he sure made a wonderful blue Christmas tree.

I had the best time creating with JDaniel. I hope you will take time to play and create with your children today.

Here are some more Christmas decorations:

Ribbon Candy Ornaments

Threaded Tree Ornament

DIY Fine Motor Wreath

Taking Time to Play- The Educator’s Spin On It

November 6, 2012 By Deirdre

We are excited for the opportunity to share our Time to Play with you as a guest post on JDaniel4’s Mom. We both share a love of books and how to incorporate them into our children’s lives through play.

Balancing life with a 2, 6 and 19 year old can take to prethinking to make sure everyone has their playful moments with Mom. Since we share share a weekly ideas of after school activities on The Educators’ Spin On In It. I want to share with you how important it is to take the opportunity for some afternoon play with your child after school. Luckily my two year old has been napping as we come home from school so, we get a chance to have some one on one time together and then the girls love playing once homework is done. Children don’t get anytime at school to just be kids and playtime is such an important role in childhood.

The Educator’s Spin on It

Now here’s comes the fun! Did you see JDaniel4’s recent Own Post? We loved it especially since it’s Owl Week at The Educators’ Spin On It! I’m excited to share with you our playful afternoon moment we had! We’ve been spending more time walking home from school together. We’ve even made some fun discoveries of plant life and animal life! We brought home tons of leaves from our walk one day and decided we were going to do something with them together. We sat and looked at the leave together and sorted the leaves. Something I’ve observed about my daughter is that she likes to categorize things during playtime. Even as a toddler she would find pairs of things and line them up. It doesn’t surprise me now that she’s in love with math. I’m so glad that I’ve observed that about her play over the years.

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While playing with the leaves she had a moment where we remembered a special book,Look What I Did with a Leaf! by Morteza E. Sohi that creates pictures from Leaves.

Look What I Did with a Leaf! (Naturecraft)

She ran inside to grab the book and then she came up with the idea of creating an owl from the recycled cereal box. So we gathered all our supplies and got to work. She glued on the feathers, beak, nose and wings. Once the owl was dry it was showtime!

At the very end of the day she used the owls she made to put on an Owl Puppet show to practice her lines for the Owl Play that we were practicing for. Sorry I was part of the show so now pictures from this part but it was such fun to talk in character with her and just see into her imagination. Plus what a fun way to play with words to get ready for her performance!

I was so proud of my little owl! We hope you’ll stop by for more Owl Inspired Fun at The Educators’ Spin On It!

Kim is the co-author of The Educators’ Spin On It. As an early childhood teacher and a mom of three, she’s learned many tips and tricks of parenting and teaching along the way in the past 20 years. She shares her “Educator’s Spin” on parenting issues and how make learning playful and playtime meaningful. You can also find The Educators’ Spin On It on Facebookand Pinterest.

Taking Time to Play- The Pleasantest Thing

October 16, 2012 By Deirdre

Carolyn of The Pleasantest Thing is an a expert at helping her children find fun and build memories. Please stop by her blog and check out her wonderful ideas. I love her Halloween Gross (Motor) Fun post. I will be using some of them when plan for JDaniel’s preschool Halloween party. I think the children in his class will love them.

My boys and I have had many fun experiences inspired by the Taking Time To Play series, and I am excited to be contributing to it today.

As a recent play date at the playground was winding down, my thoughts had already turned to packing up the diaper bag, the best way to transition to the car, and the dinner preparations waiting at home. Then we looked across the field next to the playground, and saw that the late afternoon sun left an enormous shadow of a big, beautiful tree.

My friend and I knew this was an opportunity not to be missed. She suggested we pretend to be squirrels, scurrying around the branches, looking for nuts and seeds, jumping, chasing each other, playing. Of course, all thoughts of leaving the park were left behind.

Our play date lasted much longer than anticipated, and ended in joyful exhaustion. We all played together in the shadow of the tree. The kids loved that we got into the game with them. It added that extra measure of delight that happens when adults join in on the kids’ game. I don’t recall what I made for dinner that night, but I clearly remember the squeals of laughter from our time in the park.

Carolyn is a mom to two boys, ages 4 1/2 and 1. She believes play is critical to child development. Her blog, The Pleasantest Thing, focuses on learning and developing imagination through adventure, play, reading, and nature. You can also join in the fun by following her blog on Facebook.

Taking Time to Play- Follow His Lead

June 26, 2012 By Deirdre

I am sharing a post called Book Activity: Pledge of Allegiance and that includes how to make an American flag mobile. After reading this post, I would love for you to stop by Not Just Cute to check it out. Let me share with you why taking time to play is important. Here is special time my son and I had recently taking time to play.

Taking Time to Play

Sometimes I know just what you want to play when I go the closet that houses all of the games, building toys, and crafts supplies.

Sometimes my child knows what we should play together as his eyes scan the two shelves that house their things.

The game or toys just jumps out at them and calls to be played with.

Bristle Blocks were calling to JDaniel last Tuesday when we took time to play together in the afternoon.

Our morning had been busy. JDaniel was in his first day of a three day camp on the Orient at his preschool. I had been rushing around getting things ready for my trip to the Type A Conference and gathering the foods my guys would need while I was gone.

It was wonderful to just sit at the kitchen table and work with Bristle Blocks.

JDaniel had in his mind that we needed to create the building and car on the front of the box. He pointed them out as soon as we sat down.

Taking Time to Play- Follow His Lead - Deciding on a Project

We tried constructing the building just as it was on the box. It was a little difficult though. We bought the box of Bristle Blocks used and I think some of the pieces are missing. We had to substitute some pieces with others.

Taking Time to Play- Follow His Lead -Building a Project

There was also a stability issue with our structure. It kept wobbling and swaying. I suggested to JDaniel that it was caused by an earthquake that we couldn’t feel, but the building could.

Taking Time to Play- Follow His Lead -Building on a Project

He smiled and laughed at me or with me and then tried to help me add blocks to make it more stable. The car he had seen on the box he told me he wanted to create all on his own. He knew how to do it and was going to show me that he could.

Taking Time to Play- Follow His Lead Picture Two

As the sun shone on the kitchen table lighting the way for the car to travel across the road made from the slats in the blinds, JDaniel pushed his car forward. He had created it all on his own.

Taking time to play always gives me insight as to how JDaniel is doing. Today he showed me has the patience to create the replica of a car on box, the desire to work together to complete a task, and great laugh.

I hope you will take time to play with your child today!