Messy Night
Last night I took Oliver to the Julia Goldstein Center for Parents-As-Teachers Messy Night. Basically the event consisted of a set of stations for children to get different sensory experiences and, oh, about a billion munchkins and parents. We arrived just after the scheduled start time of 6:00 and found the place packed. We lucked into a parking spot and headed in.
The first place we went was a kiddee pool full of confetti. I gave Oliver some to hold. He promptly threw it on the ground. I showered some over his head, but he didn't like that. Scratch one activity and on to the next.
The next place we went was the corn/meal table. Oliver had some fun taking out the corn meal and throwing it on the floor. That was okay until he decided to try and eat it. Then we were on to the next activity.
There was a giant piece of paper taped down to the floor. I directed Oliver over to it and we sat down. I tried to interest him in the giant chalk pieces and succeeded. I tried to get him interested in using them to mark on the paper and failed. We came back later and tried with markers to no avail. Next time.
We walked around and purposefully passed the painting, gluing, and taping areas. We settled in at the water table for a while. Oliver had great fun playing with the water and splashing about. The only problem was that the water table was so much fun that it was hard for him to get to the table itself. After he got tired of the water, we were on to a different activity. He kept coming back to the water table throughout the night.
The next stop was the mud pit. They had a big trough full of mud with shovels and rakes stuck in it. Oliver played with the mud a little bit - enough to get a smear below his eye that looked like eye black. But then he was done with the mud and just wanted to carry around the muddy shovels and rakes. I got him to give them to me and they got tossed back into the mud.
The next stop was the Oobleck area. Oliver played with the Oobleck a little bit but it wasn't that interesting to him. His real fun was attempting to climb up on to the kindegarten chairs. They were a bit too high - the closest that he got was airplaning on top.
Oliver played briefly in the sand pit, but he was more interested in wandering around with the dinosaurs from the sand pit. We tried writing on a paper plate, but Oliver wasn't real interested in that. We went to the Playdo area but he wasn't terribly interested. Finally after an hour and a half of sensory fun, it was time to go home.
The thing that struck me about the evening was that I only saw one attendee that I'd known. I would have thought that between Gymboree and LLL that I would have come across one person, but I didn't. I'm taking this as a sure sign that we need to get involved a little more in the local toddler scene.
The first place we went was a kiddee pool full of confetti. I gave Oliver some to hold. He promptly threw it on the ground. I showered some over his head, but he didn't like that. Scratch one activity and on to the next.
The next place we went was the corn/meal table. Oliver had some fun taking out the corn meal and throwing it on the floor. That was okay until he decided to try and eat it. Then we were on to the next activity.
There was a giant piece of paper taped down to the floor. I directed Oliver over to it and we sat down. I tried to interest him in the giant chalk pieces and succeeded. I tried to get him interested in using them to mark on the paper and failed. We came back later and tried with markers to no avail. Next time.
We walked around and purposefully passed the painting, gluing, and taping areas. We settled in at the water table for a while. Oliver had great fun playing with the water and splashing about. The only problem was that the water table was so much fun that it was hard for him to get to the table itself. After he got tired of the water, we were on to a different activity. He kept coming back to the water table throughout the night.
The next stop was the mud pit. They had a big trough full of mud with shovels and rakes stuck in it. Oliver played with the mud a little bit - enough to get a smear below his eye that looked like eye black. But then he was done with the mud and just wanted to carry around the muddy shovels and rakes. I got him to give them to me and they got tossed back into the mud.
The next stop was the Oobleck area. Oliver played with the Oobleck a little bit but it wasn't that interesting to him. His real fun was attempting to climb up on to the kindegarten chairs. They were a bit too high - the closest that he got was airplaning on top.
Oliver played briefly in the sand pit, but he was more interested in wandering around with the dinosaurs from the sand pit. We tried writing on a paper plate, but Oliver wasn't real interested in that. We went to the Playdo area but he wasn't terribly interested. Finally after an hour and a half of sensory fun, it was time to go home.
The thing that struck me about the evening was that I only saw one attendee that I'd known. I would have thought that between Gymboree and LLL that I would have come across one person, but I didn't. I'm taking this as a sure sign that we need to get involved a little more in the local toddler scene.
posted by mypetrock at 11:10 AM
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