Today I'm sharing our daughter's shelf work in our living room; she is age 2.5. We have had a few different variations of our childrens' area in the living room over the years and currently we have a large 4x4 IKEA Kallax unit, where her work is on the bottom half.
The top half is used for family organising baskets and my son has the little cupboard. They also share the books in the book cube. My son used to have more of his activities and work in the living room, but he now chooses to have most of it in his bedroom and he just brings down what he wants, at times.
Find a little bit more about each shelf work we have out for our daughter at the moment, along with links, below.
These Grapat wooden rainbow eggs are one of the things both of our children reach for the most. They are beautiful and excellent quality. I thought we would just hide them around Easter time, but we tend to have them out all year round. Current setups include:
- me hiding them for each child; easier places for my 2 year old daughter, harder to find ones for my 7 year old son
- my son hiding them for my daughter
- me setting up the egg hunt for my son and his friends when they are here
- his friends setting them up for eachother when they visit us
Most recently, my daughter has offered to set up a treasure hunt for grandparents, which was very fun and so sweet to see! Currently she mainly scatters them and places them everywhere she can think of, not quite hiding them, but she's learning 🙂
I can’t quite believe how something so simple brings so much joy to very different aged children. It helps my daughter to learn about waiting and patience (whilst I hide them in one room), and it can help with language and learning the colour names for each egg, plus with counting (we usually hide 5-10 eggs, not all the ones we have, then we count to see if we’ve found them all). It’s great and I think absolutely not just for Easter 🐰🧺
Cutting 1cm strips of paper into squares using real scissors. This is a practical life activity that supports several areas of a child’s development including hand-eye coordination and bilateral coordination (which means using both sides of the body to do an activity together) as both hands work together to control the cutting. Repeating the cutting motion helps to develop concentration and control of movement - I observe my daughter absolutely getting in the flow with this activity and often asking for more paper once she has cut all of what she starts with. Also, allowing her to use real scissors helps her independence and confidence; we are saying "I trust you to use real tools" with this activity. Larger wooden tray linked here
Two bug & insect themed puzzles that are 3 pieces each. I observed my daughter and so far, 2 piece puzzles seem to be easy for her, but 4 piece ones (from this set) seem too much of a challenge currently. So she has these 3 piece puzzles with large pieces and clear, realistic photo of insects - many of which that she is likely to have seen before in her reality.
Wooden matching tiles - I take about 5-6 pairs and mix them together in a basket and she finds the matching ones and puts them together. Our set is second hand - a brilliant find from a charity shop - and I love the realistic painted illustration style of the animals and insects (I always look for realistic animals where possible for younger children's work). Many are animals that my daughter would have seen in real life. I have found similar matching cards here.
Arctic animal figures collected in a basket - for language work and also my daughter likes them for open play. Most of our animal figures are second hand (from charity shops and car boot sales) and my favourite brand is Schleich. In this collection just the seal is Schleich but here is a lovely Arctic Animal Schleich Set (I think it would make a great gift or joint gift from several people).
A simple colour matching activity which has various different options (currently we have the sticks version on the shelf). My daughter can choose the colour of stick to match the slot and then there is a little gap so she can take out the lid, remove the sticks and start over. I place these on a miniature bamboo tray for her, so it is easy for her to carry to her table and back again when she has finished with it. Larger wooden tray linked here
A simple sticker activity, again on a small bamboo tray, easy for her to carry. I use dot stickers that we already have in the house, plus sheets of small stickers (I try and look for reality based photo or illustration stickers, of things she may have seen in her world). I usually remove the backing sticker sheet, if there is one, and this makes it much easier for her to peel the actual sticker off the backing sheet each time. I cut up some small pieces of leftover card for her to stick onto. Larger wooden tray linked here
