Childhood101

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We Play: Play is Learning in Action

You might have seen our treehouse post yesterday? Needless to say, the jungle animals have been enjoying many impromptu gatherings in and around their tree house over the past few days! What I love about open ended toys, is their capacity to encourage a diverse range of play experiences, limited only by the child’s own imagination. And so our doll house tea cups and birthday cake fit just as nicely into playing jungle tea parties as they do a party in the doll house, and Immy regularly takes toys from one set or area and ‘repurposes’ them in another – imagination and creativity in action.

How does your child ‘repurpose’ their favourite toys in new ways?

What have you been playing this week? To link up;

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Christie Burnett is an early childhood teacher, presenter, writer and the editor of Childhood 101. More importantly, she is a Mum who believes wholeheartedly in the value of children learning through play, the importance of quality early education, and the togetherness of family.

Read more of Christie's adventures at https://childhood101.com.

Read the comments or scroll down to add your own:

  1. Dorothy says

    May 3, 2011 at 7:50 AM

    My boys aren't terribly interested in open-ended toys, believe me, I tried. They do however surprise me with the extent to which re-purpose their character toys. They love to combine their Pokemon cards, Bakugan, Transformers and Ben 10 aircraft to make up quite elaborate scenarios and games. Maybe it's a boy thing?

  2. Marita says

    May 3, 2011 at 11:04 AM

    I'm so excited when I see my girls using toys from one set with a different set of toys. Yay for crossing over. Currently lots of our dolls house, littlest pet shop and lego toys are getting mixed and matched.

  3. Marthese says

    May 3, 2011 at 11:25 AM

    I like to see that happening as that is part of building up their own characters, using their own ideas , imagination, and it is interesting to see how one child presents an activity one from the other :)

  4. Martianne says

    May 3, 2011 at 10:01 PM

    My kids love to repurpose toys and just about anything to suit their imaginative endeavors and construction ideas. Just today, I posted about their doing so with pool noodles as hockey sticks!

  5. Heather @ Preschool Buddy says

    May 7, 2011 at 8:55 AM

    I'm starting to think that toys are over-rated. I swear my sons would have just as much fun playing in a pile of dirt as they would with a $30 toy. Thanks for sharing all the great ideas!

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