It's Official, You Guys Are Geniuses

[daycarediva]

It was necessary to do this with my current group--it was chaotic when they had more than a few minutes of free play. They still interact plenty--I feel they get plenty of socialization. Now when we do "free play", there are a couple of choices, and that's it. For example, I'll set out the play food/dishes (not too many pieces) in the kitchen area, and in another area, duplos. They can choose between the two. When they had too many choices, they just ran and yelled.

Awesome! I was just picturing separated kids.

I do centers as well, and we rotate out. My crew is pretty 'trained' (that's a poor wording choice, but I can't think of another that's better- conditioned? LOL) to go to a center (velcroed name tags with max # of kids and the areas separated) and they clean up their center before moving on to the next.

[Rockgirl]

Awesome! I was just picturing separated kids.

I do centers as well, and we rotate out. My crew is pretty 'trained' (that's a poor wording choice, but I can't think of another that's better- conditioned? LOL) to go to a center (velcroed name tags with max # of kids and the areas separated) and they clean up their center before moving on to the next.

This is my hope for my group when they get a little older.

[Controlled Chaos]

It was necessary to do this with my current group--it was chaotic when they had more than a few minutes of free play. They still interact plenty--I feel they get plenty of socialization. Now when we do "free play", there are a couple of choices, and that's it. For example, I'll set out the play food/dishes (not too many pieces) in the kitchen area, and in another area, duplos. They can choose between the two. When they had too many choices, they just ran and yelled.

I am glad this is working

[Francine]

I was so frustrated last week about my free play situation and posted asking for help. I got some wonderful suggestions, and implemented some of them today. I only have two kids, so I layed down 2 towels with 2 or 3 related toys on each, I set a timer and I placed each DCK on each one. I fully expected meltdowns each time I redirected them to stay on the towels and keep their toys on their towels. But instead I kept having to reset my timers because they were playing so well and seemed content to stay! I was hoping to get 3 or 4 minutes out of them, but it's been 15+ on each station. My one with the shortest attention span keeps telling me that she's all done, but when I tell her time isnt up, she goods back to playing. And I haven't had to break up one fight yet!

And one bonus that I hadn't thought about is that I'm making them clean up their sections every time they move, so they playroom is staying clutter free! I could cry!!

Can you give me a few examples of what kinds of toys you are giving them to play with on their towels?

[Rockgirl]

Can you give me a few examples of what kinds of toys you are giving them to play with on their towels?

I am not the OP, but I'll give some examples of mine:
Pegs/pegboards
Plastic animals
Puzzles
Mr Potato Head
Large stringing beads
Basket of books
Sorting bears
Small farm set
Wooden food cutting set

You get the idea. I have some rugs with manipulatives, and others are just for fun.