Many of us are spending a lot of time at home or in the garden at the moment so this could be a great opportunity to tackle potty training. In many ways the experience of potty training during lockdown could be much the same as at any other times but with a few extra considerations. First things first, making sure you’re ready. We’re all for grabbing an opportunity when you see one but make sure your little one is actually showing signs that they’re ready to potty train. NHS guidance suggests waiting until they can go at least an hour without wetting their nappy and they know they need to pee or when they are doing it and can...
The day started well enough. When Granny arrived, everyone was fed, watered and dressed, my middle child, Hamish, clutching his inseparable companion, Foxy. There was a brief moment when I couldn't find the two older children but they were soon located outside, blocking the drain with pebbles, a favourite pursuit, and Foxy was helping. We loaded everyone into the car and set off to a smallholding where we were buying some new friends for my mum's lonely bantam "Pearlsie Mittens". As I parked at the gate Rebecca shouted "I can see the farmer" and Hamish burst into an enthusiastic rendition of "Eee iii eee iii oh" and continued singing parts of Old Macdonald for the next twenty minutes. While Granny...
Children with this schema will make elaborate farms with animals in fields, gather objects into boxes and other containers and put outlines and borders round their drawings. The railways track will be constructed as a loop, never just a straight line and the duple bricks will be arranged as a wall around the edge of the board. Children with this dominant schema may enjoy emptying spaces/containers as much as creating and filling them. Play ideas: A good selection of farm animals with plenty of fences and gates. Railway and road tracks that can be made as loop, with vehicles of course. Construction toys like lego/duplo, stickle bricks and wooden blocks for making enclosures. At bath time or in a water...
I'll start with my favourite play schema - transporting. In a busy nursery setting this was the one I dreaded. Transporters like to gather up objects and take them elsewhere, so when a piece of jigsaw is suddenly missing, or another child's shoe (just one!), the transporter may need to be questioned, not that they'll remember because they will have been busy transporting things all morning, quietly creating mayhem. Sometimes they have impressive abilities to hold several unrelated objects in their hands. Their pockets bulge with their stash of bits and bobs. Often the object is of little importance although later on it can have symbolic meaning e.g. a wooden brick may be a loaf of bread (preferably in a...
A schema is a pattern of play in young children which can be observed as they explore their world and make sense of it. Some children have several schemas while others have a very dominant preferred one. If your pre school child regularly does something distinctive in their play, the chances are you can think of it as an uncontrollable play urge, also known as a dominant schema. When you understand how these are manifested in their play, its fascinating to see how your child is learning about their world and processing it. Here as some of the most commonly seen schemas: Trajectory Rotation Enclosing Enveloping Transporting Positioning Connecting Positioning Orientation Transformation I'll discuss each of these in a separate...
