An invitation to play

I don’t like to overwhelm my little Cannon Ball with too many toys. As a matter of fact, he has very few “lights and sounds” toys at all. I like to provide him with the basics (blocks, cars, nesting cubes, small instruments, balls, etc) and let his imagination take him where it will. I don’t want to stifle creativity by giving him toys that can only be used one way and in one context. Most of the time he is fine with the toys he has. He will happily choose books to “read” for several minutes at a time or work on his block stacking skills. That being said, he’s still a kid…more specifically a toddler kid who likes to play with anything that is NOT a toy (i.e. my cell phone, baby powder, remote controls). So I occasionally need to spark his interest in open ended play activities that include novel items. While looking for some ideas I came across this interesting concept called “invitation to play” (visit Teach Preschool’s blog for a great definition and example of setting up invitation’s to play!) Here’s our first “Invitation” which was very simple, but kept Cannon engaged for a decent amount of time:

I set this station up on the coffee table while Cannon was napping. When he woke up he happily explored everything on the tray!

Busy little hands!

Choosing blocks to wrap in foil.

Benefits of this activity:
Develops fine motor skills
Language development (colors, shapes)
Sensory development (visual: reflective and shiny surfaces, auditory: crinkly foil)

I think I like these invitations to play. Looking forward to trying some more this week!

(This idea originated from the wonderful blog One Perfect Day)