Play Shelves & Toy Rotation
Less is often more in my experience when it comes to children and toys. Whilst teaching and when my own daughter arrived I have always gone for a toy rotation approach. This means that less is out at one time and it helps to focus and deepen children’s play. For more information on toy rotation check out this post.
This toy shelfie is part of a series I wrote when my daughter was much younger. I’m currently in the process (2026) of reviewing and updating each post.
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Original post:
Go with Nature
Hope you’ve had a good week. Our week started off quite slow as Floss was feeling a little under the weather. I’ve been working on giving our days in the house, when Floss isn’t feeling well, a little more rhythm to them, so that they flow more like any other day.
UPDATE: it’s really interesting reading this back and seeing how frequently Floss was under the weather and although we don’t yet have all the answers we do have some. I’m glad we made the decisions we did to give her a more gentle but rhythmic flow to our days.
The end of the week has been very blustery here and Floss has really enjoyed watching the trees move in the wind. We also found a butterfly, well it found us and landed on me. Floss was fascinated, so I’m going to change the themed shelf from the ocean theme (click to check out the Ocean Theme Shelves here) to a butterfly/ insect/ nature shelf next week. We did this and you can find the minibeast shelf here.
Finding Your People & Teatime
This week was our second week going to a Waldorf parent and child group. Floss has always enjoyed nature and loves to collect treasures that she finds outside; this group is really helping to foster that. One particular aspect she loves of this group is snack time. Each child is given a small tea cup with ‘fairy tea’.
UPDATE: Oh gosh how we miss this group. It never started back up after Covid. It was the most magical group and if you can find a group near you that speaks to your soul then make it a priority in your week. Not only did Floss get so much joy from these sessions but so did I. I truly felt I’d found my people.
Last week the water was infused with lemon balm and this week peppermint. All week Floss has noted when we have made tea, said the word tea very enthusiastically and wanted to join in drinking tea, so lovely to nurture these social opportunities.
UPDATE: Floss has continued to have a fascination with tea. We love a poetry teatime! Now she is older we make our own tea blends. It’s lovely to be able to share knowledge that has been passed down to me of the benefits of certain herbs, spices and flowers.
Repetition in Play & Stories
The Grimms Rainbow (this link gives you £10 off £70+ orders from Conscious Craft) still remains, but has been split up this week as it’s been used as separate pieces much more.
UPDATE: 8 years later and this rainbow still gets used ALL the time. It’s also one of those toys that I think once Floss finally outgrows it will remain on display in our home – I love it!
Please excuse me in the mirror balls. Floss is obsessed with them and I just couldn’t photograph them without getting me in the picture! Something Beginning with Blue is the firm favourite of the week – I’ve given up counting how many times I’ve read it. This is the first book that Floss has started to say what will be on the next page before we get to it.
Just a little update for Nov 22 to say Floss has become a huge fan of Nick Sharratt. I’ve also found his books so good to use in the classroom and with EAL learners (English as an Additional Language Learners). If you’d like to know more about books suitable for EAL leaners head to my blog post – Teaching English as an Additional Language – EAL – Ukrainian Learners here.
Dear Zoo Book & Activities
Dear Zoo is one of the ultimate childhood books. I don’t know anyone who hasn’t heard of it. It’s always in our book area and Floss goes through phases of returning to it.
This week has been one of those times. It started off with us playing hide and seek with the animals. We shared the story together and each time we found an animal in the book she went off to find where I had hid that animal around the room.
This is such a fun game to play and you can do it with lots of different books. You don’t have to have the characters you can always just draw a picture or print one off. As children get older and start to match words try adding in the written word for the animal to match too.
Then came the puppets and the puzzle pieces and the animals being transported everywhere!
I’ve had a couple of people ask me where the puppets are from. Sadly, I got them a few years ago and can’t find where to get them from now. However, you can get some of the characters from The Puppet Company. The wooden animals are by Lanka Kade.
Play to Support Feelings
We’re seeing real changes in Floss’ ability to cope with emotions and those of others through the time we are spending looking at feelings.
This week we’ve been focusing on happy, sad and shy more as these are the ones that she relates more too. The Hape Eggs (sorry I’ve only seen these second hand now) have been having little baths in the Grimms Natural Bowls and sliding down the Grimms Rainbow. This link gives you £10 off £70+ spend at Conscious Craft.
If they make it they’re usually happy, but sometimes they fall off and are left feeling a little sad! I wasn’t sure whether I was introducing looking at feelings too soon a couple of weeks back. However, when you plan what you are doing around your observations of your little one you don’t often get led wrongly and this has certainly been true.
UPDATE: Homemade playdough is a great way to explore feelings as you can change the expression really easily. It’s such a wonderful sensory play experience. We like to add different scents to our doughs.
Same But Different Play
Floss has always enjoyed conical stacking towers and has become quite proficient in placing the pieces onto the stick. She’s not so fussed about putting them in order yet, but will sit and thread them on time and again.
It’s not challenging for her, but she definitely enjoys it. Dexterity is a strength for her, so I wanted to give her a bit more of a challenge along a similar line.
A shape sorter is perfect opportunity to develop her fine motor control and you can see the level of concentration on her face as she threads. Often, just adding a little extra challenge can really deepen concentration and prolong satisfaction.
I can’t find the threading set that we have but this set is really similar. I also love the natural woods in this set from Hope Education.
What They Love
As always, Floss is still into balls. However, she’s begun to show an interest in things that move with wheels and things that can easily travel down a slope. So, the final shelf this week has some Lanka Kade vehicles, a Brio Police Car and the Grimms Rainbow to travel over. Ball v. wheels – who will win?
