Carolyn’s

Play House Highlights

April 1, 2002

Moving Right Along!

It is now April and Carolyn’s Play House is flourishing. We added two new members in March and look forward to more starting in April. Mekhi now makes himself at home in all rooms, branching out from his beloved water and bubbles at the sink to singing and dancing and playing with balls in the living room, jumping on the loft mattress and exploring play dough and paints at the art table. Ely, our newest member, dazzles us with his smile and the delightful sounds he makes as he explores the world, spends long times with the shape sorter and building cubes, and gives himself rides on the doll stroller. We look forward to getting to know him more each day. And Micah, one of our first members, is now delighted to be walking!

Songs and Stuff

Each day we have music/dance/movement/game time in the living room. One day we took scarves, soft balls and instruments and played our Wee Sing Silly Songs tape. Mekhi made it louder then softer for us. He used rattles as drumsticks and tambourines as drums, playing two at a time. Soon a rattle became a baseball bat and Mekhi the batter. Then I took down the guitar, Audra said ‘jump’ for me to play the jumping song (Jump, Jump, Jump to my Lou!) and then ‘car’ for me to play the car song (Take me for a Ride in the Car, Car). She said her part with a ‘BEEP, BEEP, BEEP’ at exactly the right time. All the while Micah laughed and moved to the music. Finally we all watched the scarves float up and down and felt their breezes on our faces and played peek-a-boo with them.

‘Little Bunny Foo Foo’ is a big hit. Audra imitates the sounds and hand motions now. One day Ben sang the whole song for us, after which we applauded loudly! He then assured us that Little Bunny Foo Foo would be turned back to his real self very soon. This reminded him of the fact that he felt very sad for Humpty Dumpty because he broke when he fell off the wall!

Invented Games

Ben and Audra made up a game up on the loft after I asked Ben to throw stuffed animals up to the platform instead of down to the playroom floor. Audra decided to help (saying ‘help’) and handed him animals one by one and Ben put them on the platform. When they had finished their task we all clapped. Another time at the art table Audra and Micah made up a similar game. Micah handed Audra crayons, one by one, until all the crayons were in the basket. More applause…

Walking to the playground and back, we play this game: We sing our ‘walking song’ (‘We’re Going for a Walk, Walk, Walk’ to the tune of ‘We’re Going to the Zoo, Zoo, Zoo’) and we take turns saying ‘STOP!’ at which time the singing stops and we all freeze like statues. Then someone says ‘GO!’ and we keep walking!

Audra brought out the beanbag chair one day and we all watched as Mekhi and Ely (with help, of course!) took turns diving onto it. Ely laughed and laughed.

Senses

Audra makes shapes and lines and dots with pencil, creates texture with a tool on play dough, feels the stickiness of a sticker (scrunching up her face, saying ‘sticky’) and presses it on paper, explores the softness and roughness of materials in the environment (collages, sculptures, stuffed animals), saying ‘soft’ and ‘rough’.

Micah watches other children with great attention, laughing at their silliness, intensely wanting to do what they do and wanting to be where they are. This gets him involved in all kinds of interesting activities -- poking and tearing play dough, using the ‘dot paints’ to make colors on the page, making marks on a page with crayons, playing peek-a-boo with a teacher from the loft.

Mekhi delights at cold running water (throwing his head back and laughing. saying ‘cold!’), experiences full and empty, counts big prickly seeds (which we found in the park and are now the cleanest seeds in New York City!) as he transfers them one by one from one container to another.

Ely’s eyes get wide and bright when he hears music; he rocks, using his own special two-fisted movement

Playing and Learning

As we play we learn the fun of taking turns and doing things together. We learn that there are times and places where even small people can have power (like when Audra says ‘stop’ and all the big and little people stop). We learn the joy of improvisation by making up games all the time.

In doing art (very connected to play for young children) we learn the to make choices; this is a place where we get to decide where and when and how to make a mark, which material to work with and where to place it, and which colors to choose. For Ben (at three) art becomes another venue for his rich imagination – the yellow part has become a dangerous fire and here are the firemen, there is the scary monster, etc. He also discovers what happen when he mixes yellow and blue and that he can make darks and lights and many different kinds of green.

As young children navigate the world of objects and other children, they strive to make sense of complicated realities, like what is ’mine’ and what is ‘not mine’ at any given time. If one child is playing with a toy can they play with it too, or instead of him/her, or not. They learn that sometimes other children will actually give them things, and this can turn into a game. How cool is that!