wee play everyday: Is your house set up for play???

For the longest time I couldn't understand why "play" wasn't happening in my house.....we had AWESOME toys....all a kid could dream about.....However all my kids did was dump, smash, and bang them.....UNTIL I came across the term "play invitation". This term changed our life. I realized that my kids needed to LEARN how to play. They had been spoiled since birth from our amazing family and over stimulated by the amount of toys and honestly didn't really know what to do with any of them! SO, what is a play invitation? It's a station or set up that invites them to do an activity. I don't show them what to do or tell them how to play but allow their imaginations to take over. We removed all toys from our living space and I only have 3 stations set up at any given time. A reading area.....currently set up with Christmas and winter books. Our felt board is set up with a choice of snow man or Christmas tree. Today I also set up a vet station. Complete with a dr kit and a choice of stuffed animals. And our activity center with sensory activities and busy boxes is always available. With a limited amount of choices they no longer make a complete disaster and they actually PLAY with our toys instead of destroy them. They rarely ask for TV now because the stations change on a regular daily or weekly basis depending on how big of a hit it was. Sometimes the Play invitation is a sensory activity and other times it is a imagination based station. This has worked wonders and has also made clean up SOOOOOOO much easier for all..... These are the stations we had today.....

This is our activity center.....always open and ALWAYS a yes zone. The only exception is messier items are not allowed within an hour of meals.

This is our reading area set up under the Christmas tree....All these books are Christmas or winter realted and there is a basket of elf, Santa, and reindeer hats incase they choose to dress the part.