I may have mentioned in another post or two that I was an Early Childhood Teacher for many years. And since the day my first baby was born I have incorporated what I know about child development and ECE (Early Childhood Education) environments into our home.
For me, the playroom is the perfect place to still feel as though I can use my knowledge of environments and inspire my children to be creative and play, while all the while learning.
Area and center will be interchangeable throughout the post.
Here we have our "Dramatic Play" area. A place to pretend with babies, "to cook", play "store" and dress up.
The "nursery" where we keep our baby dolls, their clothes, diapers, blankets, bibs etc., with a little wooden cradle for going "night, night". This area is next to a "couch" (a crib mattress) which is next to a book shelf. It's quite cozy. The kids can take the babies over to the "couch" to read books or lie down and pretend it is a bed.
"Couch" and book shelf
In the "kitchen" we can pretend to feed the baby. I personally love this doll. She was purchased from Magic Cabin and is made entirely from natural materials.
In the containers are dramatic play related toys; pretend food, costume jewelry, dress up clothes, a gardening kit, etc.
This article explains nicely what children gain from playing in the dramatic play center.
On another wall is the block center. Here we have blocks of all sizes and manipulatives to use with the blocks, cars, farm animals, dinosaurs, etc.
We also have some puzzles. Puzzles are not a construction/building toy, but are a small motor manipulative. Unfortunately I have only so much space. With space constraints some areas need to be "mixed" a bit.
However, some areas are mixed together on purpose. In an ECE classroom you will find the dramatic play center is right next to or even a part of the block building area and this is appropriate. The reason for this is, it is believed that the two centers work together because boys are more likely to spend time in the block building area, while girls are more likely to spend time in dramatic play. (this is not my personal opinion but from research done in ECE classrooms) When putting the two centers together the boys and girls will combine their play by incorporating dramatic play toys in the block area and vice versa.
Here is a very informative article explaining the reason for putting the two centers together.
Here is an excellent resource on what children gain from working with blocks.
A large carpet is placed in the block building area to create an open space to build large creations as well as helping to cut down on noise when those creations fall or get knocked down.
The art/creative center.
This area is still under construction. I have tried to set it up many different ways but nothing has worked well enough yet. I have some new ideas I'd like to try soon. Once I do, I'll post it. For now we have two "child" sized desks, an easel with chalk, markers, colored pencils, crayons, and different types of paper.
Our art display
I hope you enjoyed our playroom tour.
