all aboard the rainbow express

here's a peek into our little world of pretend play.  abby's imagination is literally all we need around here for an exciting day to unfold - a few toys and a couple of chairs led to a train ride on the rainbow express.  and let's not forget the rainbow tickets, passengers, and their snacks.  i'm pretty sure not an activity goes by where we are not all well fed with abby's snacks.  it is a must.  

rainbow tickets in the making

all friends aboard...try not to focus on the naked baby who was left on the curb :)

much of the fun is deciding who will sit where, what color bowl they get and of course what ticket they will receive

so our days usually starts with some planning on both of our ends.  i talk about some things i want to get done and abby chooses a few things she would like to do.  rainbow train came out of her LOVE for moving chairs around (i must admit it drives me crazy but i go with it because it is about the only exercise she gets in the middle of pittsburgh winter).  the former teacher in me lets abby lead the idea and the play and then i try to think of ways to incorporate different areas of development into the pretend play.  to encourage fine motor development she is coloring her tickets and cutting them out (with a little help from mama).  gross motor skills occur when she is moving those chairs around and jumping off the chairs.  speech and language development/social skills occur throughout, but we role play what the conductor would say to the passengers and what the passengers say back...and using those pleases and thank yous.  we practice counting chairs and naming the different color bowls to work on cognitive skills.  adaptive skills are enhanced as abby pours her o's into each bowl.  

something major this mama is leaning from her girl:  she doesn't need a lot of toys to fill her day, learn, and make her happy.  she needs to use her beautiful imagination and for a sustained period of time have uninterrupted/focused interaction from her mama.  this leads to a happy girl and a happy mama.