Carolyn’s

Play House Highlights

April 2003

Hi parents,

Here is the latest issue of Carolyn's Play House Highlights, hot off the press! I’d like to make a couple of disclaimers. Firstly, sorry for the length -- we had some catching up to do. Second, there is no way any newsletter could capture the impossible cuteness of these children…

Anyway, hope you enjoy…

Yours,

Carolyn

The Latest and Greatest!

On cold days this winter we made great use of our lobby. Hula Hoops were basketball hoops or jumping stones for frogs in a pond. Toddlers grew from little seeds into sunflowers, flew away like birds or galloped as riders on horses shouting ‘Giddyap!’ and ‘Whoa!’ On snowy days children took their babies to the window to see, made ‘snow’ from bubbles or visited beautiful Christmas trees in West End Avenue buildings. Now with the coming of spring and park outings, we again stop by our favorite shrubs to see the growing buds, and our community garden for the first shoots of tulips and daffodils.

Malcolm delights in his own voice as a growling bear, moving through space as he pushes a stroller and in general doing with things what he will. Sky and Eli laugh uproariously at each other’s antics – sometimes racing down the hallway with their dolls and scarves; others creating their own speedy version of Ring Around the Rosy. Complex negotiations take place in the dress-up corner -- Mekhi asking Audra if she will please see if Laila will trade her fire hat for his! Simon, Sienna and Susanna, our newest members, are greeted with quiet appreciation, songs and cheers as they venture into the world of peers.

More and More Favorite Things

These days you might find Malcolm at our new ‘play house’ – moving it to preferred locations, rolling figures down the roof, balancing ‘mommy’ on the couch. Or at the play dough table – picking up a lump with a big play fork, putting it in a container; taking it out, putting it back, attempting a lid over the lump and finding it won’t fit, all with great patience and deliberation. He pushes his stroller down the hall (waving goodbye to onlookers as he turns the corner) or plays Follow the Leader with Sky, both driving plastic chairs. He likes the fire trucks and has taught himself how to hold them with one hand and move ladders up and down with the other. He loves sounds. One day he perfectly imitated Sienna’s hen-like clucking noise. Another time he picked up a tambourine and stick to play. He was surprised and pleased when Audra and Laila as audience applauded heartily after he finished his piece!

You would see Eli at his special place in the kitchen -- cooking ‘Special Pancakes’ (Carolyn’s secret recipe) or helping to make play dough. There he spends long times creating glazes of colored glue to making beautiful browns. And making bracelets he enjoys deliberating which bead comes next (‘um’ he says as he ponders). Constructing with Styrofoam pieces and pipe cleaners he teaches himself about materials and their properties. And continues to come up with innovative ideas – one day standing on the bumpy drawing paper I had on a tray, which led to outlining his foot shape, and then mine, to see which was bigger. Another time instead of merely placing materials on sticky paper it occurred to Eli to blow pieces of tissue paper and watch them float and stick. Soon everyone was doing it!

Watch Sky as he goes to the block corner, brings blocks to the table and contentedly builds all on his own. Or listen as he laughs at all his friend’s jokes. These days Eli and Sky sit together at the playroom table – no grown-ups needed, thank you – Eli scribbles fast and furiously on the Magna Doodle, which Sky finds hilarious; he erases the drawing and waits happily for Eli to do it again and again and again. Like Eli, he loves art materials. He takes up glue with a cotton swab, likes the creamy consistency of it; is like a Chinese calligrapher at the drawing table, looking carefully at the lines he makes -- two lines, then three, sets his own rhythm. Or methodically takes out each of the puzzles, figuring it out, then putting it back to get the next one. One day Sky invented this game: He placed figures carefully on top of the Sesame Street pop-up toy. Then up popped Elmo and the policeman! Cool…

Mekhi looks more and more to his friends for fun. He takes Laila by the hand to read ‘The Lonely Grasshopper’; or works with her on the Moody Bear puzzle. He finds Audra first thing in the morning; off they go down the hallway. At naptime he likes to be on her mat with her for the story, before going to his own. He can be heard asking his buddies ‘please can I play with that when you’re finished’, be seen giving toys when he is done; and is really good at taking turns, like when jumping from couch to cushion on the floor. He likes being ‘big brother.’ One day at the window, his arm around Sky’s shoulder, he pointed out his friend’s house across the street. Cozy indeed. And delights in using his whole body – to make whole body tracings or for all kinds of made-up games and races. Try our ‘sock race’ some time – great for mismatched socks! We throw a ‘sock ball’ down the hallway and put a line of tape to see how far it got, and try to get it even further next time.

Laila is always ready with the friendliest of smiles. She likes to do things in pairs; when she gets goggles or hats or scarves she is always sure to bring one to Audra. With all her friends she hides behind the wall hanging in the loft, fills up her bags and wallets to the brims for shopping sprees, dons her favorite fire fighter hat, or plays maracas and rhythm sticks. She loves the grand surprise of painting on a tray, pressing down her paper and lifting it up – a print! Sometimes she and Audra work at the blackboard together for a long time – one drawing with chalk and the other washing with a sponge. She is sure to be included in all pretend trips to Pooh’s House or Work; and often orchestrates her own laughing parties. She starts laughing heartily for no other reason than the pure joy of it, and the other child laughs even louder and then Laila says ‘shhh, too loud’ and then it starts all over again.

Audra as ballerina in her white and silver leotard, tutu and waistband; continues to impress with her graceful bows, jubilant tricks, fancy dancing and hopping on one foot. As queen with scarf draped over her head and shoulders she inspires Laila to be princess while Mekhi plays king. One day she and Mekhi wore sunglasses – Mekhi was ‘batman’ and Audra when asked said she was ‘bat ballerina’! She knows how to makes her friends giggle. One day she held Mekhi gently by the shoulders and told him he was ‘too loud’ over and over in such a comical way that he laughed and laughed. Or creates quiet playtime for herself -- sits contentedly with her baby in ‘music class’, singing a special ‘hello’ song to all her friends at ‘Carolyn’s’. She likes to try new art techniques. With watercolors she has learned to dab the brush so it is not too wet, and she enjoys drawing with cotton swabs into wet paint on a tray, before she prints.

Dramatic Play:

These days Mekhi, Laila and Audra transform make-up case into suitcase, scarves into blankets, gather up their babies and hurry off to the airport (our front hallway). Once I suggested they include Sky in the game. Mekhi bent over Sky and asked ‘do you want to be the baby?’ Sky smiled cheerfully. Another time Audra was flight attendant, ready to serve snacks to passengers. And then there was the time Mekhi announced the airport was closed and Audra suggested they call Raymond (my superintendent) to help fix the problem!

We also have many pretend birthday parties, complete with party hats, napkins and plates. Play dough cake is brought to everyone from our new kitchen corner. Mekhi likes to sing ‘Happy Birthday to Me’; Eli enjoys putting as many candles as possible in a play dough muffin, and then ‘blowing out’ the pretend-lit candles. Audra favors the candleholders for her pink play dough cup cakes.

Once Audra took sheet after sheet of shiny wrapping paper to cover a stool – first it was a house and then her throne at lunch time. Another time Mekhi and Eli used the big cardboard box first as a tunnel and then as a bed to sleep on; scarves were blankets and rug samples pillows and voila! (I promised to wake them up in the morning.)

All throughout the day they carry small grocery bags for shopping, wear sunglasses for the beach, use goggles for seeing the world through different colors and cameras for saying ‘Cheese’! With their notebooks they write notes to mommy and daddy, sit at the table and tell us to ‘shh’ in their library, or write ‘messages’ when the play phones ring.

Finally, the little loft (called our ‘castle’) has become a special pretend place. The children cover themselves up with the pink mat, get up to travel to Pooh’s House, march downstairs as I (the castle guard) await their return, climb up again and cover their babies, snuggle in the loft and are off to visit Pooh once again.

Art and Science Play

Here are some of our latest sensational experiments. We’ve made ice cubes with food coloring, mixed the colored ice cubes in water and watched as they melted in warm water. And juice pops, froze them, kept checking and tasting to see if they had hardened, and finally they did, so we ate them! The children love our new ‘modeling sand,’ a craft sand-like material to mold as cakes and mountains and castles, or drizzled through fingers. They like to fill shakers with rice – find all ways to fill them up – sprinkling with fingers, scooping with spoons. Eli noticed that the rice made his fingers dry.

The older toddlers are learning basic color mixing – Mekhi loves the roller – I make a puddle of blue and a puddle of yellow and he rolls and watches for a new color – green! We do the same with other primaries to make secondaries – yellow and red for orange; red and blue for purple -- and then red and white for pink. We recorded the results of our experiments and made a book!

We’ve made dream catchers with pipe cleaners weaving in and out of mesh, prints, tissue paper paintings, sock puppets (the children drawing faces of their own) and have used a variety of materials and colored glues to make beautiful collages. We work with white chalk and paint on black paper; once we put white handprints on black paper. At Easter time we made shakers – filled clear plastic eater eggs with beans and rice; and taped them shut. As Audra sprinkled her beans carefully, I said it made me think of a nest. One thing led to another –she found a little rock for an egg; asked what could be the bird (and liked a feather for it); added ribbons and shiny paper for twigs; and made a most precious still life to take home.

We add new materials to the play dough table – straws, pipe cleaners, buttons and shells; the children turn their sculptures round and round. One day I set out pipe cleaners and said to close eyes, twist the pipe cleaners any way, open eyes and get a big surprise! Laila thought it a funny idea, laughed, then made many arches on her play dough base; the arches became doorways for doggies to walk through.

Music and Story Play

These days our rhythm bands feature hand-held drums, triangles, wood blocks, maracas, rhythm sticks, and sometimes pots and pans with wooden spoons! We play simple rhythm games: I clap Hello as two syllables; they clap back the same; ‘How are you’; they answer ‘I’m fine’. One day after watching me play ‘Old Mac Donald’ on the piano Mekhi did the same -- including counting in the song and leading others in clapping. We also like to dance our version of an old favorite -- Tip Toe Round the Rosie. Sometimes when we all fall down we freeze until the first person laughs. And some days Audra and Laila play and bop at the keyboard while the rest of us dance and Malcolm does his part, turning the switch on and off and the volume higher and lower!

Mekhi, Sienna, Audra and Laila love to hear made-up stories about themselves as baby bears and other characters of choice – their noises and movements become sound effects and actions weaving in and out of the plot. Eli and Mekhi like to give Ernie and Elmo puppet shows (Eli’s sometimes shows up under instead of over the curtain!). Nursery rhymes and other rhyming stories are big favorites; the children say the words they know. And snack has become a wonderful time for listening to books for longer and longer periods of time.

Playing and Learning

On various and sundry explores, toddlers teach themselves about the world. Malcolm throws a Hula Hoop down – then goes in the middle of it and twirls; Laila says ‘round and round’ while she draws. They experience roundness in their bones. As Eli deliberates which bead goes next for his necklace, or Sky makes rows and roads with blocks, they learn about sequence in the context of play, that is, with pleasure.

As we read Mouse Paint, we ask the children, ‘Why is the mouse all blue’? Reading Cat in the Hat we wonder out loud, ‘why do you suppose the children are inside’? We ask them what they think and they learn to think for themselves. Laila lies on her tummy reading her pop-up book. From time to time she glances up at Mekhi and Audra playing together, quite content to do her own thing. She learns to be comfortable alone and with others. She is finding her own rhythm.

One day at the collage table, Audra was interested in playing with rather than gluing materials (‘one for Audra, one for Eli’ she was saying in her play). If we orchestrate materials in an inviting way and stand back once in awhile, children learn to make choices on their own and about themselves. If we delight in their choices, they will feel good about who they are. If we allow them time to wander, their natural inclination to do, to be the cause, to explore, to arrange things will take over and surely evolve into deeper passions later in life.