I love setting up Invitations to Play for J, but I’ve been kind of lazy about doing them lately. The weather is changing and we’ve been inside the house more than usual, so it’s the perfect time to get back to our Invitations to Play. I came up with a ton of ideas and decided to start them back up with a bang. I decided to set up a new invitation every day for J. It took some planning and a few trips to the Dollar Store, but I did it.
If you want to know more about Invitations to Play is, read this great post from The Imagination Tree.
Each day this week, I’ll share with you our daily Invitation to Play! Each Invitation was set up in the morning and put away that evening. I did not guide his play or tell him how to play with the materials given. I just set them out as an invitation and he got to choose how to play.
So, let’s get started! Today it’s all about the Pasta and Playdough.
The invitation consisted of:
- Pasta of different sizes, some dyed colorful colors.
- Homemade playdough
- Pipe cleaners
I usually put my invitations on a cookie sheet to contain the mess a bit.
He started off my pushing the pasta into the playdough, then added a few pipe cleaners.
He played with it like this most of the morning, but it changed a bit after lunch.
He spent a lot of the afternoon cooking and making us dinner with the pasta.
Truly the best part of creating Invitations to Play is watching how their imaginations work and what they come up with. Sure, I have an idea of how I think he’ll play with it, but he always comes up with something I never dreamed of.
By providing a child with open ended toys and materials and then allowing them to play how they need to, a child learns to think outside the box and to become more creative. That’s the number one reason why I love invitations to play.
Come back tomorrow to see our Tuesday Invitation!
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Fun! Let’s have a playdate! :)~
Oh I’d LOVE a playdate!
I will let my kids to do that.