Hi Rain or Shine,
you're so lucky to have a play room, I'd soooo love to have one! My play room is basically every room in my house other than the bathroom.
This page should give you lots of inspiration for your playroom.
http://pinterest.com/thelittlelist/learning-spaces/
Personally I have incorporated the Montessori method into my home and find it's much nicer to live with, as everything is neat and tidy and a pleasure to look at. I tried plastic boxes of toys and they drove me round the bend. Also it's cheaper to make the toys and you don't end up with piles of plastic toys everywhere.
My advice would be have areas, as it's easier for the children to select what they want to do next and where the toys are to be put away, so even if they're not put away exactly right, they're still in the right area. So I have areas and change the items once the children stop playing with them:
- a music area (tray on a shelf with a few musical instruments which are changed regularly).
- a book nook/literacy area by the sofa (books, shapes to draw around, pencils, paper, sandpaper letters, a simple painted alphabet, phonics cards)
- a nature area which covers botany and zoology (tray with different things from nature, such as feathers, conkers, sticks, leaves, pine cones and stones, plus magnifying glasses, plastic animals to match up with the flags of the world they come from, a leaf, tree and flower puzzle - this names all the parts of the flower, wooden puzzle matching baby animals to their parents)
- practical life area (play post box, a set to learn to use tongs to pick up pom poms - made from egg box, mini tongs and a bowl on a tray, basket with pegs in - to peg around the edge, money box and change, two bowls and a spoon with cereal - to learn spooning, jugs and water - to learn pouring skills, threading buttons, nuts and bolts board, hammering).
- sensorial area (generally montessori materials I have purchased or made, like sand paper cards, which kids match the grains of sandpaper to develop their sense of touch, colour matching games - made with laminated colour cards (made from paint charts) and a box of matching coloured items like buttons, toys, stones, spoons and coloured wooden blocks. Anything else which develops their senses, like tasting cups (to match flavours), sound pots (to match sounds) these are film canisters filled with things like rice or pasta, but superglued down! And a few russian dolls and a wooden sequence puzzle)
- geography area (land and water forms made from sculpey - lake/island, strait/isthumus, peninsula/bay, home made globe painted so the water area is blue and smooth and land is rough and mustard colour, flags.
- science area (mainly magnet play as other science things I tend to set up every so often)
- art area and others such as dress up are in flux, as I am currently working on moving the remaining plastic items (such as toy shop/kitchen) out to the playhouse.
There are loads of websites and blogs out there on how to make your own educational equipment, so worth checking it out.
Good luck,
Becky x
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