Julia Deering - The Playful Parent - 7 ways to happier, calmer, more creative days with your under-fives

Clean and empty plastic food containers, tote bags and baskets.

An acrylic (safety) mirror tile or two.

A set of beanbags.

Balloons.

Play-silks and other large pieces of fabric, including a blanket or two.

Natural objects – such as shells, driftwood, pebbles and leaves, sticks, dried grasses and seeds.

Some child-friendly tools of investigation – tape-measure, plastic magnifying glasses, torches, plastic tweezers.

Basic art and craft supplies, the smaller and messier of which should be stored out of reach of little ones, and used only under supervision: good-quality poster paints, watercolours, PVA glue, sticky tapes – double sided, masking (painters’), colourful tape – children’s scissors, paintbrushes, paper – on a roll, A4, coloured and watercolour paper – thin card, paper plates, paper bags, stickers, pipe-cleaners, beads, buttons, feathers, sequins, googly eyes, glitter, Blu-tack, crayons, washable felt-tip pens, chalks and craft foam sheets.

A scrap-paper collection: save sweet and chocolate wrappers, used wrapping paper, old greetings cards, ribbons, greaseproof paper, foil and magazines with lots of colourful child-appropriate images for cutting out.

A selection of brushes – of various sizes, soft and hard, for all kinds of play.

Loose parts: cotton reels, pine cones, tubes, big buttons, mini pom-poms, corks, small blocks, pieces of fabric.

A collection of child-friendly musical instruments.

A good-quality set of face-paints.

A ball of string.

Make way for play

The 7 Ways to Play method supports the idea that your child’s play shouldn’t be restricted to just their bedroom, an area in the living room or a playroom. However, this doesn’t mean that there’ll be mountains of toys in every room, nor does it mean you have to convert your home into some kind of soft-play gym. Rather, it’s about making way for play in your home by adapting the spaces you already have to accommodate play; play that’s appropriate to that particular space. This adaptation of your home doesn’t have to be permanent and it needn’t be expensive. As IKEA interior designer Raphael Bartke says, ‘Children aren’t small forever . . . and your home will soon transform again.’ And, of course, you don’t need to reorganise your whole home at once – take it one way to play at a time and adapt as you play.

Ideas to get play started

Here’s how you might make way for play in your home. Try just one or two ideas initially; you’ll be amazed at the changes in how your little one interacts with the spaces in your home.

Buy sink steps or step-stools for each sink in your home.

Source a low bench or kids’ table for your kitchen (or fix a fold-down table at your child’s height if you’re short of space).

Put placemats, plastic plates, bowls, cups and cutlery somewhere low and within easy reach of your little one.

Fix hooks for coats at child height, and place some accessible storage for shoes near your front door.

Sort out your storage: a lot of art and craft supplies, toys and playthings can be stored out of sight and reach of your little one. Buy some cheap storage boxes, and buy twice the amount you think you’ll need. Label them if they’re not transparent – you will want to be able to access their contents quickly and easily. Display those that you do want left out on low shelves and in lots of small baskets and tubs.

Make some, carefully considered, toys and playthings accessible in small storage stations all over your home – the bathroom, the hall, the master bedroom, the kitchen and garden – as well as in the living room and your child’s bedroom.

Find a space for construction play.

Find a space for physical play, like target practice, inside.

Look out for spaces for temporary dens and book-nooks.

Have small baskets or boxes of picture books all over your home – don’t just store them on one bookshelf.

Create a dress-up area with a mirror.

Make a creative/making station.

Find a space for a listening station – with an easy to use CD player, cushions and a few audio books.

Provide at least one designated doodle area.

Make any outside space as safe and as interesting a place to play as inside – think accessible storage stations with kid-friendly tools and toys, a low work-bench, places for temporary dens – not just as a place for running around and other physical activity.

Find space outside for those messy or wet-play activities – and, if possible, somewhere for digging.

You can prepare for play when you’re out and about too. This doesn’t mean you need to take a suitcase full of toys with you wherever you go, rather, it’s about taking along a basic kit to encourage play. What you pack will depend on your outing, of course, but whether it’s a small toy or two, a roll of Sellotape, some paper and crayons, a torch, a take-a-look book, or a little bucket for collecting things, you can initiate some wonderful play by handing over something other than your smartphone when you’re out and about to get your child thinking, learning and playing in the real world and engaging appropriately with their environment.

So, now we’re ready, we’re set. Let’s play!

Chores: not Bores

Chore noun . A small piece of domestic work (freq. in pl.); an odd job; a recurrent, routine or tedious task.

Whether we love or loathe chores, it’s impossible to deny the fact that they are an ever-present aspect of domestic life. Anywhere along the sliding scale between house-proud neat freak and firmly in the chores-are-for-bores camp, our own relationship with, and attitude towards, chores becomes crystallised some time between the age of three and thirty-three. Once established, it’s pretty hard to alter, until, that is, we have children. Most parents would agree that as soon as a baby arrives on the scene, chores not only multiply but they also swell and mutate, unearthing a brand-new set of domestic tasks just when our time to carry out such jobs has been totally eradicated by the newly arrived bundle of joy.