Questions and Answers

I have had a few questions asked multiple times and I thought I would share them on a post. Jumping into a Structured Play program can be very daunting. If you have not checkout my Getting Started Page, you should do so. It will give some further guidance. Here are a few Q&As about Sensory Boxes...

1. Do you wash and dry all the beans/stones items in the box first?
No, I do not wash the beans, rocks or other 'filler'. We wash hands after and they do not make too much of a mess with a little dust.

2. Won't your child spill those beans "outside" the box and how do you manage it?
I have a very strict rule with our Structured Play time and space. I have just always started this way and continue to enforce the rules. They spill out of the box and that is uncontrollable for the most part. If they spill, he and I just pick them up. If he spills them on purpose to break the rules I put the box away. He knows this rule and for the most part he follows the rule unless he is really tired. When I first introduced the box I was very strict with the rules about it staying in the box and repeated it over and over and warned him not to spill. I took it away first thing when he tested me and did it on purpose. Now I do not have to remind him, he knows!

3. What if he scope and place it in a cup and take it out to another location? Do you allow him to do that? Because those beans are very small, Do you have to be careful with it and not allow any of it left around?
Our Structured Play area is in another room from his everyday play/toy area. It is a small area that we do Structured Play in and I do let him move them around. Some months he is using the box as a kitchen set-up and is really pretending to cooking. This is something I did not really intend but love how he is using his imagination. So I am letting him move to the little table we have set up so he can "cook". With the rocks in August, I did not let him move them out of the box. So I guess it just depends on what the activities are and how he is playing with them. If our room was in the main living space, I would be more strict and more careful with keeping them in the box. And when we are finished he is expected to clean everything up!

Thanks again for the questions! Please feel free to ask questions you come across as you work through your activities!

Comments

Play to Write- Week 3

We participating in a Wednesday Play Group called Play to Write over at Cherrios and Lattes . This is week 3- Write/Spell Your Name. We started this week's practice with some name tracing. Cherrios and Lattes provides the printable for some dotted letters. She suggested doing rainbow writing with this sheet. I showed Jacob but he was more interested in writing all the Jacobs. I started by modeling on the first name. Then I held his hand and we did it together. Finally I let him do the last three on his own with only my verbal prompts. He took this very seriously and was very proud of himself! I was surprised at how much he liked doing this activity. He has a long way to go but he did pretty well! One thing I had to repeat was not to go around the o and a more than once. He wanted to go around and around. This is an activity that I think he will want to do again! The next activity was Missing Letter Name Practice. We started by singing a little song I sing for Jak

Name Writing Practice

Jacob did a little name writing practice today. He was asked to trace the dotted lines to write letters for his name. This is good practice with spelling as well. I had him say each letter as he wrote the letter. As you can see he is very choppy and not exactly on the dotted lines. His motor skills are not quite sharp enough yet to be able to hold the crayon and he especially loses control as he works on towards the end. We also did a Missing Letter Name Practice. Both of these ideas came from Cherrios and Lattes ' Play to Write, Write to Read. These are good ways to practice names and writing. He gets very angry if he thinks he made a mistake. See the scribbling. I have to reinforce that it is ok to make a mistake and that everyone makes mistakes but we just keep trying. Practice is the only way to get better. When this happens I cannot help but think of my former students that did the very same thing and proceeded to throw fits and give up. I hope to help Jacob ge

Building Good Readers

"Your boys are such good readers! I wish mine loved to read like yours do! How did you do that?" Can parents build good readers? How do parents build good readers? This might seem like a daunting question, a task too difficult to tackle. But truly, it does not have to be. As our children grow and become readers on their own accord they often feel that they do not need or want parents to read to them. It is very common for this to happen, but as their parents, it is our job to push back. Readers are not born, they are made. We must find times to read to our children. That might mean reading aloud looks different as they get older. Maybe instead of before bed; you are reading at the dinner table, as they are playing, or during snack time. The point is to share books that will pique their interest and hold their attention. You might have to choose books you might not otherwise choose. The key to reading aloud is to m odel reading for them and to show them th

Structured Play

Search This Blog