Unlocking the Power of Play with Martha Ní Fhlatharta

That's amazing.

And that's something I'm really, really trying to do.

You know, when a child shows you something they've made, our automatic reaction is, oh my gosh, what a beautiful flower you made.

But it might not be a flower.

So I'm really, really trying to say, oh my goodness, I love what you made.

Can you tell me that? that because then it's the magic wand or it's you know whatever it is that they've made whereas if we put our words onto their pieces that they've made or that they're playing with then it becomes the flower oh yeah I did make a flower actually so it's something I'm really trying to do that's really interesting I

know and I love open-ended play I think like allowing children to just express their creativity I think honestly the best pieces of equipment is a cardboard box a cardboard box bubble wrap tape things that you just have in the house that are free and that you know it really encourages a child to be so creative like to think outside the box and just do what they want with it I think there's so much there's always so many like new shiny toys out there that are very kind of closed-ended and more kind of geared towards maybe like specific characters or there's a specific way to play but I actually think that those things that you have in the house like even sometimes I just go to my cupboard my kitchen cupboards and I'm like dried lentils dried rice like oats anything I can find I'm like we're gonna have such a great day just using these things that I already have in the cupboard and I think there can be such a misperception that if you're not like spending loads of money on like fancy toys that your child isn't going to develop certain skills where they're not going to have the same experiences of joyful play.

And actually so much joy comes from the things that are free.

Water, water play is amazing.

Anything sensory, I think we can do so much with what we already have.

And that's something I'm so passionate about.

Like the cost of living increase is so real.

And I think parents in particular, with how expensive life is with a child, I think we can forget that we don't have to be buying fancy toys.

We don't have to be spending hundreds of pounds.

We can actually just go to our cupboard or turn on the tap and use some soap and make loads of bubbles and make a mess.

And I think there's so much joy in that.

And I think for kids, you see them light up in that type of open-ended play because they get the opportunity to do what they want with it, which I think is so lovely.

Yeah.

Even last night with all that really, really heavy rain, we put on the wellies and the rain suits and we went out and jumped in the puddles.

Yeah.

We had the best time.

It's the best.

And, you know, it didn't cost us anything.

We had the best time.

No.