Creative Play

Okay, I'm going to make these blogs shorter by chopping them up into pieces and serving them like daily pie! Here's todays piece:

Our daughter, Sarah, has plenty of toys. Most of them are plastic, many of them require batteries, and few of them hold her interest for very long. With that in mind, a two year old has a very short attention span. Any toy that keeps her attention for more than ten minutes is a toy that has intrinsic value – it either teaches her something directly or can be used by a parent or care provider to teach any number of lessons. Every child has different interests, so a parent who accepts the responsibility for knowing what interests her child will have more tools and opportunities to teach and guide that child.

One of the toys that keeps her attention the longest is her doll stroller. She plays with the stroller more than she plays with the dolls! She puts balls, hats, books, and anything else that will fit, into the stroller and takes the items for “walks”. Sometimes she even sits in it herself, or fills a small purse with more toys, slings it over her shoulder, turns and says, “Bye, bye!” Then she heads to the “Living Room Store” and uses her toy cash register to ring herself up for various items in the stroller. Her preferred form of play is quickly becoming what is called “creative play”, where imagination takes the lead and ordinary items transform the child's play into extraordinary fun!