Empowering Parents Sharing Playfulness

1. Children are curious creatures. They explore, question, and wonder, and by doing so, learn. From the moment of birth we are drawn to new things. When we are curious about something new, we want to explore it. And while exploring we discover. Empowering Parents Sharing Playfulness

2. What do you know about? • Child Development • The importance of Play • Brain Development • The importance of Emotional and Mental Wellbeing • The importance of Physical Wellbeing • Early Learning Possibilities Stop Keeping This a Secret!!!!

3. 15 x 36 + Quality + Home Learning= Best Start

4. What do you see? If a child stays curious, he will continue to explore and discover.

5. Explore and Discover Experiment and Investigate

6. Imitate and Celebrate What is most pleasurable about discovery and mastery is sharing it with someone else. We are social creatures. The most positive reinforcement — the greatest reward and the greatest pleasure — comes from the adoring and admiring gaze, comments and support from someone we love and respect. Practice and Achieve

7. Imagine and Create For too many children, curiosity fades. Curiosity dimmed is a future denied. Our potential — emotional, social, and cognitive — is expressed through the quantity and quality of our experiences.

8. The C.I.D. Approach If I am curious, I will investigate If I Investigate, I will discover When I Discover, I am Learning

9. Think of a Building The less-curious child may make fewer new friends, join fewer social groups, explore less and create less.

10. In the Kitchen Drawer! Fear kills curiosity. When the child's world is chaotic or when he is afraid, he may not like novelty. He will seek the familiar, staying in his comfort zone, unwilling to leave and explore new things.

11. Wee Ideas • Play and Stay Sessions • Singing Circles • Wee Bags of Discovery • Top Tip Posters/ Buggy Books • Maths Bags • Art Cards • Cheeky Challenge

12. Some other Wee Ideas Tickle Giggle Bump Tea, Talk, Toast, Tuesdays Yarn Bombing Tickle Giggle Play Stitch and Bitch Pimp My Ride Ready Steady Restore

13. Consider the range of songs you enjoy with your babies and toddlers. How visual do you make them? What learning potential do you set up through the ‘song sets’ you use? Remember to make your rhyme time fun, interactive and as visual and active as possible! Nursery Rhymes are part of the oral tradition of language. Rhymes and songs encourage many basic skills in movement, speech, cognition and perception. The use of repetition, rhythm and rhyme support the development of language. Singing Together Sessions

14. Play and Stay Sessions Tuning children into learning should be an engaging experience for all involved, adults and children creating a learning opportunity in partnership. Setting the scene for enjoying books and stories should never be a brief or undervalued activity. Find a way to catch a child’s imagination, to create a new ‘world’ which excites all involved. Children being active agents not passive recipients

15. Allow children to be drawn into an experience by using your voice, a piece of music, a piece of stimuli (an ‘alien’ and funny voice!) Emotional climates have strong correlation with achievement

16. Offer children reason to remain emerged, sit back and let them lead. Praise their engagement and success. In the story the aliens ‘steal’ underpants. We hid them around the room in small and large envelopes for the children to find. Then we waited. “Look, spotty pants!, I’ve found spotty pants. Big red ones with spots!” There were 41 children Involved in this experience. Each as excited as this little girl, eager to wave their pants in the air and describe them with luscious language.

17. Even when we think there will be no response, look to enable a child, even the youngest to ‘switch on’ Be bold, step away and allow the children to take ownership and watch the learning transpire. Give time for a child to respond, then extend their engagement in an appropriate way, by repetition, new suggestion or similar experience

18. Chatter Natter Use the telephone, microphone and voice changer to talk to your little one rather than just talking. Ask them simple questions, like a wee interview. Suggest you sing a line of a song then they sing the next line, keep taking turns until the end. Make sure they know most of the words, help them if they get stuck.

19. Chatter Natter Walk round the room and name something you see, then ask them to name something. Repeat a few times. This time walk round the room and give a little clue, “I see something soft”, invite them to guess what you see. Then suggest they give you a clue. Challenge them by saying something like “name a blue thing” or name something higher then the cushion”.

20. Push and Pull Let your little one play around with the various cars in the bag. Talk about them what they look like, what they are, what they do. Encourage your child to push them and pull them on different surfaces. A magazine, a table, a carpet.

21. Push and Pull Can they take the car apart? Even the tyres come off! How far can your child make the car ‘drive’? Let your little one take the car to pieces then build it back again. Offer help when required. Guess how quickly you can take them a part and build them back up.

22. Bonding Time “I’m great for tickles and giggles”

23. Learning to Read “we can help your baby learn to read!”

24. Let’s Chat “I can help encourage your little one to talk”

25. Lets Set the Table Mango loves to play with kitchen utensils, His favourite is spoons. Let your little one help Mango play with the spoons in the bag, talk about them, describe them. Why not let Mango find any other spoons, encourage your little one to show him where they are! Can your child talk about the spoons with Mango? Challenge your child to tell Mango what all the spoons can be used for, why they are different to the forks and knives. Can they find the smallest and biggest spoons?

26. Lets Set the Table Mango likes to set the table. Encourage your child to take some cutlery out of the drawer and use it to set the places at the table. Or put a couple of sheets of paper or towels down on the floor and set the ‘picnic’ up for snack. Count out the cutlery for each ‘setting’ then place them out ready for the plates. Pour some pasta pieces into a bowl and some sugar or salt in another. Suggest your child and Mango try to spoon the contents into another bowl or onto a plate. Use each spoon and see which the find easier to use.

27. Lets Sort Buttons loves to sort things out! His favourite it buttons. Put a big pile of buttons on the floor and let your little one help Buttons sort them into piles. - think about the colour of the button- sort all the same sizes- and all the same shapes- are they plastic or metal Encourage your child to help Joe sort the jewels into different categories. Big and small, by colour or shape. Suggest Buttons helps you both sort the washing! Into piles of each family members or white, colours or towels and clothes.

28. Lets Sort Go a hunt around the house and find things that Buttons and your child may be able to sort out. Perhaps put a basket of toys together and then sort them into categories such as animals, characters and cars. Go to the park and take Buttons with you. Challenge your child to find a group of leaves, all the same then pretend Buttons is making sure they all go together. Find some twigs and sort them by length if you can find a few petals or flowers great. Or find a set of things that are made of wood, metal or fabric! (look for swings, benches, your clothes!)

29. Training Experiential Play Rooms 31/32 Hydepark Business Centre 60 Mollinsburn Street Glasgow G21 4SF 0141 557 3304 www.experientialplay.com office@experientialplay.com Resources Wonderbox Rooms 31/32 Hydepark Business Centre 60 Mollinsburn Street Glasgow G21 4SF 0141 557 www.wonderbox.co.uk info@wonderbox.co.uk Training or Resources