Encouraging language through play and modeling conversation and social interaction is the key to positive language development for children. Sound language skills in pre school years support later literacy development. The activities in A World of Play give parents/carers many opportunities to connect in a meaningful way and to stimulate discussion. The language suggestions are sound stepping stones for a child to practice skills in a supported and fun way. The role of parents in language acquisition cannot be understated. A World of Play is a world made for children and their parents/carers to enjoy and become engrossed.
Margaret - Speech and Language Consultant, WA
I felt that I already had lots of ideas of how to play with my son, Daniel. I was amazed at how many new twists to activities and games I discovered in “A World of Play”. I do not think that I had really worked out how to encourage the growth of language except incidentally through reading books and chatting with him. I think the ideas to encourage conversation are great. There’s a lot here for the two of us to play and chat about. Now when we play he is willing to copy what I say and to think up new ideas.
Robyn, Bunbury
My three year old son Tom spent the morning on the truck driving round the farm. He collected real eggs from the pretend “straw “hens nest and immediately wanted to know how long before a chicken would hatch. A quick detour to the computer and he was fascinated with the 2 minute video from youtube, before he wanted to get right back onto the “tractor” to visit the other animals around the house. The morning passed so quickly with lots of ideas to follow. I was amazed at how the activities had him talking and asking questions in an attentive and earnest way. It was quite different than reading a book. Tom cooked his scrambled egg in the microwave (the shell cracked while he played but tears were diverted with the excitement of the next activity!!). His recipe was delicious and there was no trouble getting him to eat
Sarah, Perth
Ruth Hillen’s book has given me full permission to unleash my creative inner child – to be daft and zany – to use up the old balls of wool and build friendly, fantasy spider webs around the upturned coffee table – indeed to fill hours of fearless enjoyment when on child-minding duty.
Her book reminded me how to be creative with all the everyday objects around the house – No need to buy special games and toys or revert to the TV or DVD- Ruth Hillen sent me to find the empty shopping boxes in the garage – the scarves – the hats – the old costume jewelry – the pan lids and wooden spoons and in no time at all this Granny was down on the pretend farm helping the pretend vet heal imaginary sick animals. With a few props she helped us to transport to magical lands and the time with the kids just flew by. It is good bye to those “what shall we do now” moments. Thank you Ruth.
Patti Singleton, West Midlands, UK.
Many of our friends have young children. We are often asked to babysit because we love to spend time with them playing. The games and activities in “A World of Play” certainly make us hot favourites with so many children. In the world of make believe, pretending to be in the jungle or on a pirate ship is great fun and we recognise that kids questions are so real and their feelings so intense. We want to make sure that we are doing the right thing by our friends and supporting their values while we play. There are so many activities in this book that help us feel comfortable spending time with children. The illustrations are so clear that art and craft ideas were not difficult to follow.
Ian and Lisa, Melbourne
Ever get those moments of “brain dry” or simply wonder what to do when working and planning activities in day care? I use many of these themes at work in the sensory activity group with service users with learning disabilities. I use a lot of music and movement in activities. Banish those panics of choosing a theme for an instant solution can be found in Ruth HIllen’s pages of creative fun . Here you find endless ideas to help unlock your creative mind and the inner child awakens. Ruth reminds you how easy it is to use every day objects to help people transport themselves to a land of fun. Imaginations blossom and time flies. Use her suggestions as starting points and they will take off and take over and learn a lot with your help. Relax and join in or relax and be entertained.
Ruth.Aberdeenshire Scotland
One of the surprising things about being a grandparent is the blow to your ego as you realize that your mind has gone blank when it comes to dreaming up good ideas for play with your beloved grandchildren!
They have so much energy! So much enthusiasm and they implicitly trust you to come up with good ideas! And where are those ideas you effortlessly devised for your own children? GONE!
Here is a wealth of creative ideas that will inspire us to ‘invent’ exciting and educationally sound, play times with our grandchildren. Ruth Hillen is a warm and outstandingly creative woman who was an excellent and challenging teacher. Her ability to gently encourage a young person of any age, to attempt tasks that were designed to inspire learning, has been further developed for our benefit.
The idea of listening to young children, modeling for them the very important ability of developing ideas or even…making a mistake and then laughing and learning from it! Vital life skills. Forget the ‘No, that’s not right’ and carry on with the praise that allows children to grow into confident adults like us!
Ruth has a delightful sense of humour that children respond to and it is vital for us too to use humour and laughter with our grandchildren so that Grandparent times are remembered as very happy times. It is an honour for me to recommend this book.
Kate, Vasse, WA
As a busy working Mum without close family near by, I have to rely on my nanny and other babysitters to help to care for my two young boys. One of things that is difficult about such a situation is being assured that your children are being engaged in structured play and learning and not just being ‘looked after’. This is where this fabulous book provides a solution. The activities here have plenty of balance with boisterous fun and quiet times. The language games stimulate acquisition of vocabulary and good sentence structures. I know this will be helpful in preparing for them for big school. I know that my nanny also enjoys greatly having a source of ideas for activities as this makes the day more fun for her as well as the children. I also often feel guilty that on my days with them I do not spend enough time on active play with them. This book makes it easier to build this essential time for us all into the day as I don’t have to come up with ideas myself (my ideas are never as imaginative!). The book has it all set out and easy to follow in an instant. With my own science background I particularly love the science experiments while my youngest loves the craft activities best. I thoroughly recommend this book to all parents and carers of children who feel they could do with some help and ideas for interesting, interactive and imaginative play.
Joanna, Sydney
