Now that we have celebrated the holidays and opened all the presents, it’s time to put AWAY the toys. Cleaning up can be a pleasure, or a chore, or an argument. What steps help make clean up a pleasure? Step one: set aside a time of day, every day, to put away the toys. Don’t rush. Step two: have a place to put the toys: books and puzzles on the same shelf, dolls and doll clothes in a bin, blocks together by size or kind, whatever works at your house. Step three: everybody h

www.communityplaythings.com Community Playthings is a commercial website with its science and its heart in the right place. While they sell equipment to day care and school sites, they take the time in their ads to talk about the best free gift a young child can get: learning through experiences that their mamas give them the words for. Play gives a child the most memorable experiences. Once a mom gives the gift of words by naming the stuff and the play, those memories become

Pick up leaves, pick up rocks, walk on the fence curb. It is prime time to listen to a child if you are walking to grocery store or to day care or the playground. Give her the words she needs to tell you what she’s thinking ….Edie walked 5 blocks to day care talking about the little potty at school and the big potty at home. When we got there we watched the backhoes and cranes tear down the former Children’s hospital. It was funny to hear what she was thinking. I learned a lo