My youngest started preschool in early September. He has had tonsillitis, laryngitis, gastroenteritis, bronchitis, conjunctivitis… almost anything can have -itis at the end! Today is one of these days when Little I. is sick, in fact our whole family is. I really try to keep them home a few days when they get sick so they can get better and give their system a chance to recover. My children love school but they enjoy playing at home, too.
Painting is one of Little S.'s favorite activities. She takes her boxes with crayons and watercolor pens and she draws pictures of wonderful pink houses, pink trees, pink flowers, even pink unicorns… of course, her favorite color is pink! Little I. is more interested in scribbling for fun! He uses chalks and markers on the double sided chalkboard and his marks are random, meaningless. But there is more going on; they both are using their mind and their emotions as they engage in the physical act of drawing.
After a while they amused themselves playing with Schleich animals. My children adore them! Little S. loves the farm animals while Little I. loves the prehistoric and the wild animals.
Schleich is a German brand that children love to collect. The company was founded in 1935 by Frederich Schleich. The company first produce cartoon figures, then added animals to its product line. Known for its realistic horses, domestic and farm animals, wild animals and action figure sets. Schleich offers high-quality plastic animals that are strong, hardy, and inspire the imagination in children.
One must in these “play at home” sessions is the supermarket. Little I. was a client, so he bought fruit and vegetables for the basket, bread, eggs for the egg box, sandwiches, milk, crepes, sausages…(such a play food set!) and Little S. was a supermarket cashier, so she rings up and bags customer purchases.
Before dinner and while I was giving Little S. a bath, Little I. had still time for playing with Tower Alphabet & Numbers. I have always been a fan of Maria Montessori's methodology and I like this kind of sensorial materials which have what is called "control of error". The child starts with the largest cube and puts the second-largest cube on top of it. This continues until all five cubes are stacked on top of each other. The control of error is visual. The child sees the cubes are in the wrong order. The successive dimensions of each cube are such that if the cubes are stacked flush with a corner, the smallest cube may be fit squarely on the ledge of each level.
I love to watch them play. In the words of the American writer Ralph Waldo Emerson "It is a happy talent to know how to play".
