Posts Tagged ‘Play-Doh’

  • 14 Oct

    Posted by
    Jillian Frank


    Category

    Play Date!

    2

    Yesterday morning, Jude (and I!) had play date with his new friend, Lucy (and her mom!). It sounds a bit kooky, but I’m still reeling from the fantastic time both Jude and I had.

    Lucy is a year older than Jude and is very articulate. They had played together at the park two times prior and had gotten along fairly well, but playing in close quarters is a whole ‘nother ball game, in my experience. So, I’ll be honest: I was a bit worried at how things were going to go down. Jude is in a bit of a possessive stage, and his degree of possessiveness is indirectly proportional to the amount of sleep he has recently gotten. The past few weeks have been a bit tough in the sleep/nap department, so yesterday’s play date had a 50/50 change of being great or horrible.

    I don’t want to bore you with the play by play of our friends’ three-hour visit, but I think a bullet list of all the fun things the kids did is in order:

    *What they consumed:

      Apples with peanut butter
      Popcorn
      Coffee (moms)
      Chamomile tea (kiddos)

    *What they did:

      Played with Play-Doh! Lots of Play-Doh!
      Jumped in and out and in and out of the ball pit
      Danced!
      Rode on Jude’s play car and rocking caterpillar
      Cooked food in Jude’s pretend kitchen
      Watched half an hour of Monsters Inc.

    Jude had a BLAST and passed out as soon as our friends walked out the door. I had some great (adult!) conversation, which left me really energized for the rest of the day. I’m so, so looking forward to getting together with this family again–hopefully it will happen sooner rather than later!

  • 13 Oct

    Posted by
    Jillian Frank


    Category

    Sparkly

    0

    Now that the weather’s turning cool (and rainy-boo), Jude and I have been stuck indoors more than I would like. Because we’re (almost) condemned to playing indoors all the time, Jude has been watching a fair number of movies per day, and I’ve been having a bit of an internal struggle over that fact. I honestly do believe that children are capable of self-regulating when it comes to pretty much everything: tv, food, video games. Some kids are simply visual learners–they get a lot out of tv shows, movies, and video/computer games. Even though I *know* all that, I was still questioning my not even two-and-a-half year old’s self-regulating ability. Some days he doesn’t even *think* about movies, let alone ask to watch one. Other days, all he wants to do is watch, watch, watch. We’ve been in that “watch, watch, watch” phase for a couple of weeks now, I think in part because of the crummy weather.

    In light of our present situation, I recently asked for indoor play suggestions from the people who are on a Unschooling listserv I’m a part of. I got some great suggestions for toys and for different ways for Jude to experience the kind of “big movement” play that he gets outdoors, indoors. Regarding the amount of screen time he’s engaging in, I got what I think is the best piece of advice ever in the history of the world:

    “Make sure that the tv/dvd player isn’t the most “sparkly” option in the house.”

    So simple, yet so true. Of course the “toy” that plays fun songs and depicts cool-looking talking vegetables is going to get the most attention. I mean, honestly, if you give me the choice of either putting a puzzle together or watching an episode of Firefly, I’ll pick Firefly every time. Or 99% of the time, at least. (I <3 Nathan Fillion.)

    Josh and I talked and decided to go shopping for some sparkly, hands-on toys for Jude. What we came home with… well, what we came home with is a ball pit big enough for two children. Also, three hundred (300!!!) plastic balls! Oh! And an indoor sandbox (filled with rice) and a new Play-Doh set. I can’t begin to describe how big a hit these new toys have been.

    Jude loves playing in, under, and on top of the ball pit (though we try to discourage the “on top of” part). He loves throwing the plastic balls and putting them in boxes. He loves dumping all three hundred of them on the floor. Jude does not love picking the balls up at the end of the day. This doesn’t surprise me.

    The rice/sandbox gets used on the counter while Jude stands happily on his Learning Tower. Sometimes we put a sheet down on the floor and put the box on top of it and the yoga mat along side it. Jude will sit on the yoga mat and play with the rice for minutes upon minutes! The sheet underneath makes for easy cleanup. It’s wonderful I tell ya!

    Play-Doh is always a hit around these parts, and this Picnic Set is no different. Jude has finally started experimenting with using more than one color of Play-Doh at a time, and though we no longer have any of the true colors we started with, it makes me happy to see him combining colors and making new things.

    So, needless to say, we’ve been having a great time playing at home lately. Earlier today, we hosted a play date at our house, and saying the kids had a blast might be the understatement of the year, but more on that later. Right now it’s lunch time, and my son will not be kept waiting!

    Hope everyone’s enjoying Autumn!

  • 29 Apr

    Posted by
    Jillian Frank


    Category

    Play-Doh

    0

    Is it odd that I *just* gave Jude some Play-Doh to play with for the first time a few days ago? I don’t know what I was waiting for… Was I worried about the mess? Was I worried about the amount of ‘Doh he might ingest? Yes. Both.

    I was silly to worry.

    Jude has been having a fantastic time, standing on his Learning Tower and playing with his Play-Doh on the kitchen counter. He has been wonderful about keeping the Doh on the counter and not tracking it all around the house, and although I have to remind him occasionally, he hasn’t yet eaten any of it.

    His favorite thing to do is to pull the big ball of Doh into pieces and then use a plastic scoop to transport the pieces to a cup. Jude also *really* likes it when I shape the Doh into a bunch of little balls. He likes to stack them and pull them apart. Right now, we’re only playing with one color at a time (we alternate through all four colors daily), but I imagine we’ll start combining colors soon.

    The weather has been pretty crappy here in Chicago. Although it was in the 80s this past Friday, since then we’ve been hovering in the 50s. Plus, it has been rainy. Boo. All that’s to say that Jude and I have been having lots of in-door fun lately. Play-Doh, forts, listening to the Alkaline Trio and dancing… You name it, we’ve done it!

    Here’s to (hopefully) nicer weather on the horizon!