Play Time: Construction

As much as I like to let F have free play and make his own choices as to what he plays with and how he plays, from time to time I also like to stage activities to encourage him to broaden his attention span and imagination.

He got lots of construction related toys for Christmas (my friends must be very stereotypical!) and so far they'd been thrown around and chewed. 

Yesterday we made our very own building site. Yes it was messy, yes quite a lot of sand was consumed but the outcomes were wonderful.

We used:

Water tray

Sand

Rice (or anything similar for different sensory textures)

Mess mat

Spade/rake

Diggers

Ideally I would have liked to carry out this activity using one of the giant gardening trays that are available from garden centres. I've not got round to buying one yet but his water tray proved an ideal alternative. 

I used the sand and the rice for different textures however at our playgroup we use compost. Anything with a different texture is ideal for sensory play.

He really enjoyed picking the sand up in the diggers and tipping it out again. The mess mat proved invaluable in salvaging my carpet and is definite a best buy in toddler play time!

We played together and I told Freddie all about what we were playing with. He was using the word 'yak' lots (although not strictly a word!) as I kept saying it when he was attempting to devour the sand.

He also learnt to use the word sand and was proudly telling me what it was whilst strewing it around my living room! 

We played with a little man who was wearing a hat and F told me this was 'Dada'. Daddy is a joiner so often comes home in his high vis and puts his hard hat on for F so it showed just how good his memory is becoming and how he can relate different circumstances. 

We played together for about 15 minutes and then I let F carry on independently. He lasted about 5 minutes which for him, to focus his attention on one activity for such a length of time is wonderful. He loved the different textures and pushing his trucks through the sand. 

I felt like he got lots out of this activity and although hard, I even managed to remain positive when he carried the tray through into the kitchen and tipped all the sand/rice combo onto my freshly mopped floor! 

We're going to try some more activities in his tray over the next few weeks so keep activities eye out.