Last week I shared what we keep in our toddler and pre-schooler’s School Bins. Now I’m going to share a little about how we use these bins in our home and some lots of photos of our School Bins in action.
A major part of what makes our School Bins a success is the fact that they have fun activities and four basic ground rules.
1. The Blanket Rule
The best way we’ve found to define a space for School Bin play is by placing a blanket on the floor. The kids know that they and the activities need to stay on the blanket. Every once in a while some pieces will stray, but for the most part everything is kept contained by the blanket rule.
You can set aside a special blanket for this purpose or you can do what we do and allow one child to choose the blanket for the day. The littler girls take turns picking a blanket from the blanket basket and then work together to spread it out on the floor.
2. The Quiet Play Rule
The girls know they need to play quietly since the older kids and I are concentrating on reading and math at the table just a few feet away. A little playful chatter is allowed, but they are not to get loud enough to disturb the other kids.
Our consequence for not following this rule is spending 5 minutes in their beds or sitting in a chair with no toys or books. After a few times of sitting bored they both decided they would rather play quietly. We still have to dole out this consequence every once in a while, but most days the girls do a great job of playing quietly.
3. The One Each Rule
Since we have two children sharing the School Bins and since we really want as little interruption as possible, the girls are each to play with their own activity. This helps to eliminate lots of little squabbles and excess talking. The girls also know that if the other sister is playing with an activity they can ask to play with it when she’s finished.
4. The Pick Up as You Go Rule
The space the girls have is not huge and when all the activities are out they have very little room left to play, so one of our rules is for them to clean up one activity before they move on to the next one. This is by far the rule they have the most trouble with. We usually use the natural consequence of having a big mess to clean up at the end to help curb this tendency. Gradually they are beginning to understand that it’s more fun to play when they have space to spread out.
When we first started using the School Bins we had to show the girls how to spread out the blanket and get their bin for the day. I also went through each item in the bin and showed them the different ways they could play with it. I also made sure to remind them of the rules each day. This took about 15 minutes each day for the first two weeks.
Now I normally review the rules Monday morning when we get ready to start school and then as needed throughout the week. Starting something like this does take a little time and training up front, but we’ve found the rewards to be very much worth the effort!
And now, because I couldn’t decide which photos to leave out, here are some more photos of the kids enjoying their School Bins. Remember you can also check out all the contents of our Pre-School School Bins.
Sometime we even have a third little one playing on the School Time Blanket.
I think she’s pretty cute, but I admit to being a little lot bias.
Do you have any questions about how we use our Pre-School School Bins for our toddler and pre-schooler? Do you use a similar system in your home? We’d love to answer your questions or hear about what works for you in the comments below.
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