Originally Posted by
Mouse
I don't have a lot of space, so do need to make sure the floor stays tidy. Nearly all the records in my accident book are for children tripping on toys, so it can be a real problem!
Our play goes something like this:
X (age 2) gets out the basket of headscarves and tips them all over the floor, B gets some cars off the shelf & C stands at the table playing.
X hunts through for her favourite headscarf & goes off to the dollies, so she can wrap her baby up. She leaves the rest of the scarves tipped out on the floor. I know her well. I know she only tipped the scarves out so she could find her favourite. I ask her if she wants any of the other scarves and she says no, so I say "should we put these away so no one slips on them?" She helps put them in the basket & I leave it near the dollies in case she wants a different one.
Y is 18mths old and enjoys pulling the toys off the shelf. He pulls them all off, then walks away, so when I know he's not going to play with them I put them back & he goes back later & pulls them off again. I do think that if I hadn't put them back he wouldn't be able to pull them off again, so perhaps I'm doing him a favour! He's also a tipper & transporter, so I have plenty of bags, baskets & boxes around that he can use to put anything in. He'll often get an empty bag, fill it with Happyland people, carry it round for a bit, then sit tipping them on the floor & putting them in the bag again. If the toys get spread too far round, I'll push them a bit closer to him. And if he wants to sit in a box or wear a basket on his head, there are plenty of spare ones about, so he doesn't need to tip toys out to get one.
Z is 3yrs old. He is playing with the magnifying glasses at the table. He goes backwards & forwards to the treasure basket, looking for things to investigate. When he's finished with each item, he drops it on the floor, most of them rolling away! I put a basket on the floor next to him & suggest he puts the ones he's finished with in there. It means he can still drop them on the floor when he's finished with them, but in a more controlled way.
If children have definitely finished with one activity, I do encourage them to tidy up before they get anything else out. We also have a big tidy up at snack time and lunchtime, although if the children are in the middle of a game I leave it out for them.
I also use colourful bathmats that I spread out on the floor. The children get to know to play on the mats. They might set out a tea party on a mat, or play with animals on a mat. It means they can spread out, but in a contained way. Having colourful mats down also acts as a marker to the others playing, ie. don't step on a mat because that's where someone's playing! And if I need to, I can move the whole thing, mat & activity, out of the way.
I do sometimes think I spend a lot of time following children round putting stuff away, or telling them to pack one thing away before they get out another, but part of that is necessity....part of that is my need for things to be tidy!
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