I really enjoyed the readings and videos about the importance of play and good toys. It being the holidays, my husband and I have been wrestling back and forth about what to get our two year-old daughter. We have never been fans of electronic toys and so her toy cupboard is filled with blocks and babies and animal figurines. The debate has been whether to get her a train set or a toy kitchen. The goal is to come up with a toy that will engage her and allow her to play on her own for a while. Being an only child of parents who are both students, she doesn't usually have other people to play with and she's not good at playing on her own. The only time she does is at the Children's Museum where she can play next to, but not necessarily with, other children. An indefatigable extrovert, I think my daughter just doesn't like to be alone.
As much as I hate doing it, we have turned to media to keep her occupied while her daddy and I work on homework. (We are both studying child development right now and the horrible irony of this decision is not lost on us.) So my question is, how do you encourage a child to play on their own? I want to let her be self-directed and self-selecting in her play, but it doesn't work. Obviously, it's partly an issue of temperament, but might it also be the quality or location of toys? We keep our toys in a large bucket that she has a hard time getting in and out of. Perhaps if we followed the suggestions in "How to Raise a Low Media Child" and put the toys on shelves or in small baskets, the results would be better. There was definitely a lot to think about in the resources for me personally. As a professional, the organization and placement of toys is still probably something worth thinking about.
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