Buying resources for your little one to explore can be a bit of a challenge at times, especially when family and friends are also asking what they can buy for upcoming birthdays or Christmas.
My biggest piece of advice to avoid a living room full of un used toys is to take a moment to observe your little ones whilst they play and to not be drawn into what large manufactures encourage you to buy.
You want resources to be adaptable to interests and developmental abilities, giving longevity and value for money.
For this blog, I am going to focus on one of our most popular products and guide you through how it can be used in many different play opportunities from young babies right up to pre school.
This resource is used in the Playhub by a wide range of our visitors, even adults look at it with curiosity and wonder!
Tickit - Easy Hold Glitter Panel
Babies
Sensory play with babies encourages stimulation of all their senses which will strengthen and build neural connections in their brains. Treasure baskets are a great way to introduce sensory exploration to play, gathering a collection of items together and giving your little one the opportunity to be curious. You can choose key sensory resources and then mix up these baskets with additional items.
Giving babies the same resources in play helps them to become familiar and explore further, remember that their development would have progressed from the last time.
Toddlers
As children get older they start to build a sense of self and will begin to have favourite resources and specific ways that they play. Take a moment to observe these developing play patterns and you will start to notice not just what they choose to play with but how they play.
Giving 2-3 year olds the opportunity to explore and discover feeds their natural curiosity of the world around them. Use resources that encourage wonder within play, here we have teamed the glitter panels with reflection, glitter and metallics.
Pre-School
Imagination starts to make more of a presence in play at this age and exploration turns to more purposeful play. They may start to see patterns in the glitter and can start to describe these movements. Taking opportunities to slow down play and use these resources for sensory relaxation helps to calm the nervous system especially before bedtime.
We stock these glitter panels in the Playhub or you can purchase them on our website, why not come along to a session this week and take a look.
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