Carolyn’s

Play House Highlights

December 2002

And Yet More News!

In Autumn we happily watched leaves fall from trees -- crunching them under our feet, poking one after another through fences, making great piles in the playground; placing red and orange country leaves on sticky paper for collages, scrubbing pumpkins and wearing masks for each other. And talking, talking, talking, about it all! In December we have already played in snow -- making footprints, cleaning it off cars, throwing it, and discovering icicles.

Sky now happily joins the ‘big kids’ at the play dough table, Malcolm is delighted to be walking and explores the world with quiet independence, Eli starts many fun games–from hiding in a pretend house built of couch cushions (for Sky and Malcolm’s amusement!) to inventing all manner of dashing dance movements for us to imitate--and the older toddlers (Audra, Laila and Mekhi) are busy making cards, dictating shopping lists, ‘writing notes’ to Mommy and Daddy and doing ‘homework’.

Cozy Moments

We see many warm and cozy moments at Carolyn’s Play House these days. On Malcolm’s first day Sky welcomed him by rubbing his soft hair. Then there was the time in the playground Mekhi hugged Eli like a long lost brother. These days Laila and Audra stay on their mats after nap talking quietly together of lollipops and things, and Mekhi brings his favorite blanket to lie next to Sky on cushions in the living room. Audra quietly sings a lullaby to Sky as she walks next to his stroller, or when Laila is sad about a boo-boo says ‘I love you’ and gives a kiss to make her feel better. And Laila cheers up considerably!

Books and Stories and Songs

Every day after lunch the children help me bring our basket of board books to the living room and we have library time. As quiet music plays and we all choose and read our own books, Malcolm and Sky are content to take books in and out of the basket and practice turning pages! I read a story out loud or show ‘Zoo Book ‘magazine pictures and we talk about the animals. Here are some of our favorite books these days: “Dear Zoo”, ”Hop, Jump”, “Silly Sally”, “Moon Bear”, “Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do You See”, “Big Green Monster”, “There’s an Alligator in the Elevator”. And all eyes light up to see our homemade books of the children; I write down what they say and their words become part of the book.

Often the children decide all by themselves that it’s story time. One day Sky brought his little board book to the play dough table. This gave Eli an idea: he said ‘be right back’ and returned in a flash with his favorite ‘Maisy’ book. Pretty soon we were all looking at it together, Audra showing Eli stars and grasshoppers as we counted, and Sky lifting flaps to his heart’s content.

One afternoon after nap I played a story game with Laila and Audra. They told me what should be in the story – ‘a pig’ and ‘a frog’. We started with Once Upon a Time there were two little girls, the children added animal noises, Kelly added sound effects of the wind, and we stopped with The End!

Here is our new ‘clean-up’ song these days, to the tune of Mary Had a Little Lamb:

We all help clean up the toys,

Clean up the toys, clean up the toys

We all help clean up the toys

We all help today.

We change the words to refer to specific children and/or toys:

Audra helps put the balls away, balls away, balls away

Laila puts the books away

We know how to help

And pretty soon everyone wants to hear his name mentioned, and help clean up.

At music time we are learning how to freeze when the music stops in the middle, do the Hokey-Pokey, and remember many words and finger plays. And we love to dance with Mekhi on the drums. I count the beats, he slows down and speeds up to different tempos, and we all rock out!

More of Our Favorite Things

Malcolm likes to talk on the telephone and hand the phone to others, take papers off the sticky paper mural and (sometimes!) put them back, and clean all manner of things with a little dustpan and broom. He plays this game: takes two of the nesting cubes; gives them to me, I take one out and give it to him, he fits it back in, over and over. He is fascinated with our gestures for Little Bunny Foo-Foo and scrunches up his face in a funny way. We all laugh as Mekhi imitates his expression.

Eli loves to be the special helper – wash the table and stools with a squishy soapy sponge, help carry the bowl of bubble water for washing hands or the tray of food for snack (practicing walking backwards at the same time!), and carry mats at naptime. He continues to explore the art of balancing, from all kinds of unlikely objects as hats, to art materials during construction. One day he glued a heavier Styrofoam piece on top of a cotton ball, which I thought would never work – and of course he carefully made it happen.

Laila is a drummer girl in a marching band, a keyboard player and a singer of quiet songs as we walk to the park. She likes books and will often will get a book and sit and with it on her own. She laughs for the very sake of laughing – and enchants Sky or Eli with her happy mood. When the babies wake up from naps in their strollers she is there to give a warm welcome. And she has entered full swing into the world of ‘Mine!’ and says it meaningfully every chance she gets!

Audra cares for her friends; has been known to rub Mekhi’s back saying Are you all right, boy (much like Wendy to Peter)? She exuberantly jumps and gallops to music and entices others to follow; guessing what song is next and learning all words, gestures and inflections. She is a mimic. One day she said ‘mulk’ exactly as Eli says it (for ‘milk’), with a twinkle in her eye. She and I had a great laugh. At the end of the day she and Laila care for their babies or sit peacefully with Marion in a small group with Tinker Toys.

Sky just loves to be with everyone and do what everyone else does. At sixteen months he sits at the play dough table for half-hour at a time, work for long periods on buckling and unbuckling the doll’s car seat, or sit with one of his favorite Moon Bear books. He presses collage materials on sticky paper and enjoys water play as much as any of his older buddies. Although one of the youngest, he gets to be the leader: one day Sky pointed to the guitar; I brought it down and pretty soon Sky, Laila and Eli were all strumming the guitar, tapping the table and having a grand time.

Mekhi is still fascinated by water in many contexts (from squeezing and washing and spreading soapy water for designs on our table, to scrubbing earth from pumpkins, to drying wet slides in the playground, intently watching the meandering drops. He is an investigator – of materials and concepts (biggest and smallest when we measure the children, same and different at lunch). He is a keen observer on all our walks, of wet and dry cement, different trucks and the balloons that are still up in that tree. At naptime he races to get Laila’s special doggie and carefully covers Audra with her blanket (cozy indeed).

Dramatic Play:

A whole lot of toddler pretending goes on here all day long. Audra puts on pink slippers and says I’m Mommy or I’m a Mandrill (wearing a soft velvety dress-up blouse). Where do you live? I ask. In a tree, replies she. Or sometimes she’s a worker, fixing the roof (with her white construction worker hat). Mekhi attaches markers together with tape to make a ‘flute’ as Eli watches intently; or turns a stool and his mat into an elevator (I am the elevator operator and call out tenth floor each time), transforms the car garage into a conga drum or the snack table into a restaurant with a scarf as tablecloth. For Eli many things stand for soup – he stirs play dough, bubbles, rice, and even building toys. And the hallway is a great place for everyone to crawl like babies, eat food as doggies, slither along to be snakes, flap wings of birdies, go off to ‘work’, march with a band of friends and become bags of sand which we carry to the dump truck.

We Learn from Children

From children we learn the fun of non-stop mad-dash improvisation. It is a privilege to be along for the ride as Mekhi gathers tambourines and drums and buckets and sticks and sets up his drumming space. Or to be part of this fun: Mekhi and Eli work on a mural; Eli decides it’s time to tear the underlying newspaper. So we all practice tearing, stuff the papers into a bag, tie it up and we use it as a ball!

From them we also learn the pleasure of simply being there -- to extend the play (by suggesting that low piano notes be thunder, middle ones rain and the high notes baby birds), show delight (with a scarf’s transformation into a table cloth, blanket or tent), sing a song about what children are doing, or quietly appreciate -- to let them know that they matter.

As an art educator I have learned that early art is completely intertwined with play. After playing in snow one day, we came back and sprinkled white bits of paper and cotton balls onto sticky paper for a mural. Soon the children discovered they could throw the cotton balls like snowballs and they would stick!

Playing and Learning

Art and observations of nature are great opportunities to learn and use words for qualities and actions such as line, shape, drip, smooth, soft, sticky, shake, sharp, sprinkle, flat, press. On our walks we talk, not only about trees but their gesture, not just the colors but how light and dark or bright they are.

As children write ‘notes’ in cards to families, pretend to do homework, dictate and watch as I write what they say, look for their names on mats and chairs, tell each other stories, enjoy quiet library times, learn song words and gestures in sequence, they are acquiring important pre-reading and pre-writing skills. As they count beans while we fill shakers they learn one-to-one correspondence, a basic arithmetic concept. They learn organically, based on their interests, and with joy. As children do.

They march off to work with their handbags and drums, or go shopping carrying baskets. Through play they express what they know, clarify concepts, and organize their knowledge.

When they dance the children make room for each other to make a bigger circle. We all shake hands and sing a good morning song at the snack table (sometimes shake Malcolm’s foot, to his delight!). We work on murals together and help put toys away. Children learn a sense of belonging, of being like and liked by others, to include and feel included by their peers, that it is a pleasure to be in harmony with others.