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Talk to others about child development and behaviour stages here. You can find more information on our development calendar.

Behaviour/development

How much structured play?

13 replies

colditzmum · 16/01/2005 19:23

My ds is 21 months old, and we don't really play with him in a structured way. We just let him get on with it, pointing things out and helping if necessary ie; drawing and playdough.

How much structured play should we be "doing"? Or is he too young for that?

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colditzmum · 16/01/2005 19:31

Argh, I'm being shoved off!

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zebra · 16/01/2005 19:33

Too young (IMHO)

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LIZS · 16/01/2005 19:34

There is plenty of time for that in the future. Just enjoy his inquisitiveness.

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Yurtgirl · 16/01/2005 19:37

Message withdrawn

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Yurtgirl · 16/01/2005 19:39

Message withdrawn

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Clayhead · 16/01/2005 19:49

what does everyone mean by structured play?

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colditzmum · 16/01/2005 19:55

I mean defined activities that have a purpose, like "making necklaces" which we haven't done yet rather than making toy cars have crashes (which we do a lot!)

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zebra · 16/01/2005 20:00

Ah, if that's what you mean, Colditz, then go for it! I guess I was thinking 'Tumbletots' or similar. Otherwise, it's great to give them different sorts of experiences... but don't get bothered if he's uninterested or has a v. short attention span.

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weightwatchingwaterwitch · 16/01/2005 20:01

too young, plenty of time for that later imo.

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Yurtgirl · 16/01/2005 20:13

Message withdrawn

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Hulababy · 16/01/2005 20:17

At that age DD enjoyed the odd session of water play, painting, crayoning, baking, etc. And we had sessions where we would read and talk about what was on each page, etc. And we used those wooden jigsaw things - but she isn't really into them much then or no. We also had videos like Fun Song Factory (still have somewhere infact as she loves it) and did lots of singing and dancing to the action songs. And DD has a Baby Keyboard we used on the computer as well.

Nothing was done formally, just different activites to entertain her and me

But she also had a lot of time playing by herself as well, which I think is very important at this age.

DD goes to nursery too, and has done since being 5 months old. There they do a lot of structured play there and DD has loved it all. So, certainly no harm in doing it at home too.

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Hulababy · 16/01/2005 20:18

We also did some Tumble Tots (although finished that at about 18 months for a bit) and some swimming, but not every week. And vsits to story time at the library - they do singing, arts & craft stuff and story time in the hour or so in an afternoon.