Cohousing-L Mailing List: RE: playrooms

[welcome (welcome]

This former preschool teacher and (still) parent responds:
WHAT you have depends of course on what age children use it and with how much 
supervision.

CONDITION is important. If things are broken, pages torn, etc, the items should 
be removed, as shabby things invite further damage.Someone can be in charge of 
sifting and rotating things. If the donor of an item wants it back, if not 
used, they need to specify.

SAFETY is vital. Things with small parts, like regular Legos, need to be "up" 
where the youngest can't get them. Avoid toys that invite fighting play, and 
long poky things in general.

 SELF serve vs supervised use will put some things at kid height, others up on 
a shelf, with the kids knowing that to have something from the higher area they 
need to have an adult get it out for them, or in the case of older kids that 
they should put it back up when done. This will apply to art materials, books, 
puzzles, etc. 
>> 
>> CONTAINERS are key. The ideal is something open on top, transparent or 
>> clearly marked with a picture of what's in it, so that things can be pitched 
>> in without having to open the container. Clear plastic tubs are great, but 
>> decorated cardboard boxes work too. Thrift-shop plastic lunch boxes line up 
>> on an upper shelf and can hold all sorts of little sets of things, labelled, 
>> that are only gotten down from time to time. 
>> 
>> If you want some of your dress-ups hung on pegs, it helps to sew into each 
>> one a good-sized hanging loop of something like colored bias tape or ribbon, 
>> easy to spot and manipulate. 
>> 
>> An "art cart" is useful, if you have space for a little three shelf trolley, 
>> with colored paper, crayons, masking tape, etc. Things with more potential 
>> for misuse by little ones, like scissors and paints, can be kept "up" when 
>> not in use. 
>> 
>> Options you might have:
>> dress-ups, musical instruments that don't go in the mouth (rattles, drums), 
>> books, a basket of baby toys, manipulatives (wooden blocks, Legos, Duplos -- 
>> the bigger preschool Legos, Fisher-Price Farm and other little-people 
>> paraphernalia, puzzles only if you are willing to have them dumped, trucks 
>> and cars, a small number of teddies or dolls, with 6-9 year olds "ponies" 
>> "trolls" or dollhouse figures. Art stuff incl toilet paper rolls, business 
>> reply envelopes, scrap paper and good paper, paste, glue, hole punch, yarn. 
>> Home-made playdough with cutters, rollers etc.
>> A small "jogging" trampoline (circle about 3 ft diameter, about 6" high) 
>> provides a fairly safe outlet for active energy.
>> 
>> Obviously you can have NO art materials, or NO books, or whatever 
>> combination you want. Dress-ups and props for imaginative play are very 
>> basic. A refrigerator box, or collection of smaller boxes, will be well used 
>> (and is recyclable when too beat up).
>> 
>> Something I did in setting up the kid room (15x15) was to provide a place 
>> for each kid to paint something. In our case, the cupboard doors have flat 
>> panels, and each kid did hand prints or painted a picture. Visiting 
>> grandchildren have done paper art which has been posted on the walls. It 
>> gives them a sense of ownership. 
>> 
>> Probably the most-used feature of our kid room is rather unique: a "cat 
>> door" in the wall that they can crawl through to the front hall! My next 
>> task is to create a way to wall it off when escaping needs to be 
>> discouraged...
>> 
>> Lynn Nadeau, RoseWind Cohousing, Port Townsend WA
>> 
>> You Wrote:
>> >I am beginning to sort through our initial donated toys and am wondering
>> >how to best hold down the clutter
>> 
>
>
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