Playful Learning Spaces

I count myself lucky to be a part of the Playful Learning team and was over the moon at the opportunity to take part on their Playful Learning Spaces workshop this past month.  The experience gave me a whole new perspective on the areas I have designated for the girls and made me completely rethink the Christmas list we were sending out to the family (that's a whole other post!).

My  favorite part is the fact that I am able to revisit the lesson videos and links, as well as the inspiring comments and pictures of the room transformations shared by the other women in the workshop.  Inspiration can continue to be reignited each time I look back on these awesome resources (because we all know that we never have time to do the things we want WHEN we want to do them).  :)

My rooms and spaces are far from done, but I already see the difference these small changes are making in my girls' interactions and in the way they entertain themselves and one another.  Here are a couple "before" photos that I took of our play room on the main floor.  I intentionally left it messy so that the amount of toys available to the girls was captured.

It was both over-stimulating for the girls, and overwhelming for us to take on as a task to clean it up every evening.  It was so jam-packed full of toys that I wasn't even sure where to start with it's transformation.  These suggested blog articles were a HUGE help:

• Child's Play: The Art of Toy Rotation
• Toy Organization: Tackling the Living Room
• Rediscovering Your Child's Space
• Seven Guiding Questions for Creating Playful Spaces
• Child's Play: Organizing One Toy at a Time

As I said, the room makeover is far from complete, and I'd still like to downsize a bit, but I already feel better about the amount of toys I have available for the girls at any one time, as well as the organization, making it easier for them to clean up after themselves.

I hope to continue to share updates as they happen, as well as my daughters' reactions to them.  So far so good!  Their attention spans seem to have tripled with fewer toys in the room.  :)

It's a wonderful, rewarding experience that I just couldn't keep to myself and wanted to pass on in hopes that one of you will find it equally as encouraging.  If you're interested, check it out here: