Well, Friends, it is official. Today is my first day as a “homeschooling” mom. I use the term loosely because Evie is two and a half. However, I am dipping my toe into the world of homeschooling and I am very excited for the opportunities it presents. The power of play is real. Children at this age learn more through play than they ever will with sitting at a table with flashcards. Setting up a small ‘intentional play area’ was high on my priority list, as it provides a place for Evie to learn through play, but also has that guided play element that might spark her interest in letters, numbers, shapes, and colors.
We do not have a ton of space to have a dedicated playroom for Evie. We have a wall downstairs in our living room and a nook upstairs. Since we spend most of our time downstairs, we decided to keep this area a free play area. Evie is free to use anything and everything in this area whenever she would like. This is helpful when I am cleaning or cooking (if she’s not helping me with chores). This leaves our small nook upstairs for our guided play area. My vision for this space was for a mini ‘classroom’. I wanted to include elements that we would find at her learning center: a block center, an art center, and a library. There are more centers but I only have so much space!
When I create ‘lesson plans’ for Evie, like the ‘my body’ lesson plan, I need a versatile space that can be used for multiple activities.
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In this area, we include:
- Ikea cabinet for manipulative toys
- A bookshelf with a toy storage area
- A soft carpet for relaxing
- An art easel
- A table
- A mobile art caddy (shown below)
- A smooth carpet for building
I love this table. This Skip Hop activity table started as an activity table for Evie as a baby. It has grown with her and is now a functional drawing, building, and playdough table! It is also light enough that we can easily move it out of the way.
Our little nook looks a little bit bigger with a mirror. Evie also likes to look in the mirror when she’s dressing up.
Keeping a morning basket, like our dinosaur morning basket or our morning wellness basket, is a great way to start our intentional mornings. It introduces concepts and then we get to explore in more depth in our intentional play area.
Art Area
In our mobile art caddy, we love to include our watercolors, markers, crayons, stickers, and lots of paper! We also have our art easel, which includes a whiteboard side, and a chalkboard side! Creative expression is so important in young children.
Building Area
In our cabinet, we keep all of our manipulative toys. This area is designed to build fine motor skills in children! Well…most of our manipulative toys. I like to do a toy rotation to keep her engaged and interested in building things. While Evie is free to use anything in the lower cabinet, the upper cabinet is storage for Mom’s things.
Reading Nook
This area is designed for Evie to relax but also explore language and literature activities. Often she curls up with the giant elephant (almost like a pillow) and a reading buddy (small stuffed animal). Sometimes she just lays there. Other times, she pulls out all of her books and we read for an hour.
Overall, we love our area! Functionality and comfort are very important! Do you include other areas in your small but effective intentional play area?