With over 10 years of child care experience in a military run daycare, public school Special Education department, as a nanny, and in private run day cares, I walked away from all of that with the thought that children do not need to be entertained. They are great entertainers all their own just given the right tools. Since Gracie was old enough to play I have created activities for her to do; now Gabriel joins in the fun. Just recently the tagline “An Invitation to Play” came through in some childcare articles that I was reading. I immediately fell in love with this title and we have begun labeling our one daily play time that mommy sets up as “An Invitation to Play”. By using this title, my 2 year old gladly takes his nap and my 4 year old hurries to her room for quiet time so that they can get their special play time.

Seeing how much fun they have each day I decided to add this series to Empowering Mommy. The best thing about the Invitation to Play ideas is that I have seen my kids start off with the traditional way to play but then they add to it or change it to fit their own ideas. I love watching them play and problem solve to create better play.  Each time, it only takes me about 5 minutes to set up and they will play for at least 30 minutes up to an hour and half.

Monday’s Invitation to Play was washing babies.  I filled a plastic storage container with water from our house and then added bubbles, baby dolls, plastic toy cups, baby washclothes, an unused bulb syringe, and a brush.

After nap time, my kids were thrilled to see that they could wash babies just like mommy washes their little sister.

My daughter ran into the house and got her play blow dryer so that she could do her babies hair.

I love seeing them play together so nicely.

And then it became washing themselves!

They had a blast playing in what my 4 year old has now termed her plastic swimming pool.

What types of creative play will you be doing with your kids today?Tweet