Healthy bodies and healthy brains grow as children play, developing kindergarten readiness. Every room in your house has learning and play opportunities. This post explores some of these in your child’s own bedroom.
The bedroom can start the day with play and end it the same way. Depending on schedules, if there is no time at the end of the day for telling stories and sharing books, you might be able to fit in some wake up ones. Hang on to your socks or slippers for this. Kids who have been read to have built a foundation of 5000 books by the time they get to school. Instead of the water torture that drips into brains, the language, vocabulary, rhythm and stories have dripped into the mind, word by word by word. Connections flow all over the brain as a result of books. As you read to your child, check out the pictures, ask your child what he sees. Mix in a few silly words and see if she giggles and corrects you. Make guesses about what might happen next.
Children will think of their own ways to play with their toys in their bedrooms or playrooms. Are there some books, puzzles, blocks and stuffies? Other great toys are cars and trucks, dolls, and dress up clothes. But there are things like socks that can make great toys. On my blog, I once posted a whole month of learning and fun with socks. Socks are fun to throw and catch, but watch where they land. (A single parent mom smelled smoke in her son’s bedroom one night. She couldn’t see anything burning or feel any heat, but she definitely smelled a strong smoke odor. As she looked around it got stronger so she phone the fire dept and asked them please not to come blaring down the street, but would they mind checking. Sirens blazing they pulled up to her door and rushed in. Even tho they confirmed the smell, they couldn’t see anything either but they checked thoroughly. Somehow a sock had gotten into the light fixture and was burning under the light bulb. The firefighters roared away, but this time it was with laughter. The morale of that story is count the socks after playing sock ball.)
Imaginative play is another fun opportunity. The bedroom can be a forest, a boat, a castle, a store, or anywhere else. Small blankets can be magic spots or swamps and toys can transform into whatever is needed. Social skills like sharing and taking turns also come into play. Would you agree their bedrooms are like children’s offices for the work of PLAY?