Setting up educational play spaces at home

[Nicpem1982]

I'm looking to revamp my dds (she's 2.5) play space down stairs and am looking for some ideas to keep them interesting fun and educational.

My dh and I are huge believers that she should have free access to a range of toys and activities that are fun but help her discover new things and learn without it feeling forced.

So far we have:

Sorting activities with coloured bricks, buttons, shapes, and various things to sort into

Small world play activities - various figures, playmats and buildings,

Colouring and art activities

Building and stacking activities

Jigsaws

Letter activities

All of theses are in her play station and she can pick and chose what she wants and we've recently added a table and chairs to the living room for her to "work" at

She had opportunities for dressing up and role play etc upstairs in her play room and we read and discuss books every night as part of her bed time routine

Has any one got any other ideas we could use?

Take her outside a lot. Loads of learning opportunities in the garden, parks, walking up the road, forests, lakes, etc. Social skills by meeting other children and adults while she's out and about, reading signs, counting ducks, seeing plants bloom, watching birds, sensory play with grass, mud, pine cones, etc etc.

Sorry, I'm a fan of outdoor learning.

Hsm - we do loads of out door activities and she attends forest school weekly.

She loves to make mud pies, climb trees, collect stuff, look for bugs, we go pond dipping, paddling in the streams and walks in the forest on a regular basis what ever the weather (trespass water suits are ace)

I'm also a fan of outdoor learning and we get out as much as possible dh built her a mudkitchen recently in the garden and she loves it.

Just want to revamp indoor activities really as it's handy for the times we're in :)

Thank you though 😊

Sounds fab. It's lovely that she can choose her activities from your designated area too 👍

"Loose parts" A basket full of interesting everyday objects such as keys, string, nail brush, different textures e.g. Wooden/metal/fluffy material/ scourer/sponge etc. Mug tree+bangles/curtain rings, spiral egg cup, large tweezers, locks, switches, paperweight, buttons, feathers, dummy phone, pebbles, shells etc etc

Basically any everyday objects that can be fiddled with or used to extend play, language and imagination.

water and sand

The book Brain Rules for Baby has some great suggestions of how to set up and rotate activities in a home play area for learning.

Train set? Or is that included in your small world stuff? Brio trains, marble run, building blocks are the toys that got the most play at that age here and always come out with little visitors. Oh and play dough, but that really needs adult supervision.

I love the lose parts idea thank you

Catkind- she has a trainset in the small world part I love the idea of a marble run though

Teen - she had a water table outside unfortunately I don't "do" sand she has sand at grandmas and kinetic sand at home for messy play sessions

A large cardboard box so she can use her imagination.

Wooden play food
Teaset and cutlery
Cash register

Viques- She'd love that but there's no way I could fit a huge box in all of her down stairs toys are mainly in the living room I couldn't House a large box sadly.

Nanasue- all of her role play stuff is upstairs in her toy room she has a kitchen, food, cash register etc can't bring the kitchen down as it's huge and blocks the route to outside :(