How to bond with your kids using play with Seyi Obosi
She is mum of one (age 2) who continues to inspire her to guide other parents in finding the joy of incorporating Montessori into their own homes… which is what she wants to do for you, too!
She has completed a few years of passionate independent research on Dr. Montessori and her method, and have successfully implemented everything she has learnt with her own child.
She has a Diploma and Bsc in Social Work from the University of Lagos.
She is an Intentional Mom gang!
what does Play mean to you?
PLAY means FUN. If it isn’t fun, then it isn’t Play..
What does it mean to Bond?
It means to connect
PLAYING WITH MY CHILD – where do I start?
In the coming voice notes, these will be my key points:
- Play is key to your child’s learning, development, confidence and well being.
- Unstructured, free play is the best type of play for young children.
- As children grow,the way they play changes.
How have we been using Montessori in our home?
According to Dr Maria, “do not help a child do something a child can achieve for themselves”
We have been keeping up with that by following her pace and letting her pave way for the next direction of play.
There is this app called Playfully (it is available on app store and in play store).
We have been using it since day 1 and it has been channeling our direction for the kind of play she should be doing at a certain day/week/month.
I will recommend that app any day.
With children, they learn best through repetitive plays, consistency, and routine.
They are able to absorb knowledge better this way.
Let me share a hack.
I wasn’t pressured into teaching my daughter to start the potty in a hurry, I was aiming at the time she would “understand” not the time I understand.. you get the difference?
We started using the potty @ age 2 and we haven’t had an accidents.
Using this easy methods..
The Bullet Points of Day 1
- On Day 1, set the timer for 15 minutes. Every 15 minutes, take them to go pee.
- If they go, restart the timer for 15 minutes. If not, set it for 5 minutes and take them every 5 minutes until they pee.
- Your child needs to be naked from the waist down (we don’t want to be fooling around with pants yet and underwear feels like a plush diaper, so naked. Naked from the waist down.).
- Keep your child hydrated. This might mean breaking your juice-free policy or busting out some lemonade. This isn’t a change in your lifestyle forever, but for today – you need a child with a full bladder.
- Every time the timer dings, take them to the toilet. “Potty timer!!! Let’s sit and pee!”
- Try to keep them sitting for at least 10 seconds. They might not sit long in the beginning, but they will eventually.
Bullet points for day 2
- Follow up with day 1
With growing children, play is all around them and we can help them harness their strength by joining them which in the end helps us to note what they like, what they think and how they handle things. Other than academics, a child’s emotional and psychological needs must be developed and well met, and this is where bonding with them comes in. You want to raise children not to be bullies and not to be bullied out there.
There are a couple of structured play/learning ideas I have on my Youtube channel, you can check it out here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPaZPd7lr84You can reach out to me for age appropriate story books via @booksnmontessorihub.
Subscribe to my YouTube channel for play ideas, DIY (which are inexpensive to recreate)
Follow me on my personal page on IG
@seyitheniftymum
Thank you.
Wow, this I can attest to that it has been helpful. The little time I have been able to use some of these methods, I have seen results. Thanks Seyi.