Tuesday, October 29, 2013

An Invitation: Dolly Play

One of the things I like to do several times a week is set out an invitation to play (also known as a play prompt). This is inspired by the Reggio philosophy. Anna over at the Imagination Tree does a beautiful job explaining this and she has some wonderful examples.

Since my Reggie is such a little mama she really loves this doll inspired invitation. This is fairly basic and straight forward since all I really did was find some objects related to the care and keeping of a baby and set them out. The appeal I think is how it set out waiting for her to discover it. Also she didn't have to hunt up all the stuff herself and interrupt her play.






So when she comes out of her room after quiet time this is what she finds. I don't explain or tell her how to explore or what to play. I just leave it for her to engage with as she wishes.




I guess the baby needed a nap while her mama made some lunch.



She really loves this and played with it for hours. Pretty much the rest of the day. I will say that toy rotation helps a lot when doing this since kids get more excited about new toys/toys they haven't seen in awhile than the stuff they dump out of the toy bin daily. A lot of this stuff lives upstairs in the playroom and rarely gets played with until I am upstairs sewing since she won't play up there on her own yet.

Invitations can be as simple or elaborate as you want them to be. Its a great wait to encourage and support emerging imaginations and buy yourself a few minutes of peace to drink a cup of coffee (and troll Facebook) or load the dishwasher.

Do you have a fun idea for a play prompt? Please share with us in the comment section.




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