Tools for the important work of play
My son Dante was a Seedling for two years, when he was three and four. The first year, he spent most of his time digging in the dirt or playing in a tub of water. When I’d come to pick him up, he’d be covered from head to toe with mud. Every day, I struggled to clean him off, and I struggled with the idea that I was paying to let my kid make mudpies. I encouraged him to try an art project or maybe to build with blocks, but he wasn’t interested.
Dante as a Little Sprout, age 23 months
I had — and sometimes still have — similar frustrations at home. My boys have lovely, carefully chosen toys and games, but instead of playing with them (or so I thought), they’d dump all the myriad pieces into a box and call it soup. Now it’s just a big mess for me to sort out!
Obviously, I had a hard time wrapping my mind around the idea of child-directed, open-ended play. It took me a long time to realize that, for my three-year-old, dirt and water were what he needed. Those sensations, that exploration of a tiny slice of the natural world, the solitude of standing in a corner of the playground with a shovel: that was his play.
Putting petals in a pot
Later, his friend Matthew stuck the flowers through some ribbon
Eventually, Dante moved on from his soggy outside days, but on his own schedule.
Dante and Corwin with a wood creation
When his brother became a Seedling last fall, I was ready for the inevitable:
Little brother August is wet
This past Christmas, Dante, now five, asked for a dollhouse. I wasn’t surprised, since he has a collection of little “people” that he often plays with: they talk to one another and work together.
As I began to write this post, I went to see what he was doing. He was in fact playing with the dollhouses (relics of my own childhood, they’re 30+ year old Fisher-Price houses rescued from my parents’ basement). Was he setting up furniture inside, maybe having his people converse? Of course not.
Dante building a machine
Dante was piling up a collection of colorful toys, including his houses, to create a machine. Maybe it’s a machine that will demonstrate how ironic it is that a mom who purposely chooses toys for imaginative, open-ended play — like blocks, a play kitchen and art supplies — sometimes has a hard time letting her kids decide what to do with them!
© Victoria Green and Sunflower Creative Arts, 2012
Photos © Victoria Green, Jaime Greenberg, Crystal MacLean and Sunflower Creative Arts, 2012
I love the dirt/water/dig combo. Used to keep my boys busy for ages!! My 3yo & I just started up our Waldorf playgroup again, and there’s one boy who, every snack time, takes his cup of water and pours it into his bowl. Today he floated his apple slices in there before he ate them. I thought it was great. Last year all my (then-2yo) wanted to do was wash things while we were there. Apples, toys, whatever. There is just something about water.
Definitely. This morning, Gus stood at the sink washing his hands for about half an hour. He’d touch the soap, then turn on the water and slowly move his hands in and out, turning them over, watching the water flow over them. Then he’d touch the drain and watch the water going down. Over and over again.