Informal Play

Observation Date: March 11, 2009
Observation Time: 6:30 - 8:30

Babysitting

Who: Ellie and Emma
Where: their home
Ages: Ellie (6) Emma (3)
Gender: 2 girls
Materials provided: Games,toys of all sorts, computer, TV, karaoke machine, dress up items, coloring items, paper

Play with the environment:

Ellie and Emma always play very well together. Ellie, being older, is always in charge, but Emma holds her own. I have always known them to be very creative with their play. Ellie will make up a game from anything that you give her. When I walked in, they were playing Guess Who. They quickly became bored with that. Ellie usually prefers to make up her own rules for games. They have rackets with suction cups on them so when you throw a ball it sticks to it. Ellie made up a game where her and I played and Emma was the score keeper.

Emma began playing with my purse and going through my wallet, wanting to play store and go shopping with my money. She always wants to play store or house and be the mom. Today she was pretending to read to me from a prayer book. She would mimic everything I think her teacher at preschool does. I thought that was hilarious.

We played with Mouse Trap but we did not follow the game rules. Ellie made up her own! Ellie and Emma both dressed up in silly outfits and put on shows for me. They love to sing and dance and make up silly songs.

I find that at times, without some direction, they aren't quite sure what to play. They want to know what we should play next.