Wandering Toddler

Navigating our way to building a "yes" space with has endless possibilities! Once I got rid of all the passive toys(milder way of saying battery operated, self entertaining toys), I started thinking of what can I add.  I wanted to be cautious that I don't make this an expensive affair. Be more reasonable understanding this is an experiment but also knowing that I should try! Reading through a lot of article, experiences etc, there was a very common theme in all of them. RE-USABLE!!!  I am learning as I go too, so from how I have interpreted this is - You want to add things that are natural can be re-purposed in various different way in various different types of activities. Here are some examples : Play Dough Wooden blocks Sand Water Paint Sticks, leaves, pine cones etc They are sounds simple, doable and things that make sense. These don't cost a fortune too, so I started with them. I already had some like play dough, sand, etc. An

Our journey to open ended play and taking that first step. They say realizing you need something or you are doing something not so quite right is the first step towards making a change! Well, then the hard parts done and the rest seems to be easy. Ha! I didn't know what should I do next? Seriously, I had no idea. Before I could encourage open ended play, I needed the right set of tools. What are these tools, it sounds very interesting but how do I start, rather where do I start. What does it meant to have create the right environment!  And it started looking like OMG, this is going to be so MUCH WORK, EFFORT and MONEY! Yes, it is going to be some work and definitely lot of effort. Anyways, I was totally okay putting in the extra time, effort etc. But were do I being with all of this? FIRST STEP : Think about things in your kids room/play area/things they use mostly that are limiting, encouraging limited play.  When I say limited play: Things like b

Starting our journey with understanding, building an open ended play environment! Well, it all started when I felt like kids are meant to explore, be curious and NOT necessarily just follow instructions. Most of the toys today are very instructions based, match the shapes, color within borders, follow the path etc etc.  I saw that my toddler was getting good at following instructions and doing exactly what it said! Shouldn't this be like a win! I actually started feeling like I was taking away the creativity, making more instruction following kid. I am not in any way saying kids shouldn't follow instructions, they absolutely should learn too. And in many things they should, but while they play, do things, maybe NOT.  That's when I started exploring what would it be like if we weren't into these toys and having kids follow instructions to create things/play only in a certain way. The first thing I noticed was these battery operated toys. They ar