- [Avital] Today I want
to show you how to set up
an inviting play space for a baby,
even when there are older
children and tiny Legos around.
Stick with me till the
end and I'll show you
one really fun addition my
baby is super excited about.
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(light music)
(lively music)
The Parenting Junkie.
Hi, I'm Avital.
I'm a mindful parenting coach.
I'm the mother of four.
And I am so excited to
be doing the work I do,
helping parents from across the globe
reclaim presence, peace,
and play for their families.
And today I'm going to be
showing you an updated tour
of our little play space
for our four children
and how I've changed it around recently
to accommodate all of their various needs
and different stages and ages.
So my children currently are seven, five,
almost three, and six months old.
And my older two do a lot of Lego,
a lot of building with tiny pieces
that are obviously dangerous for my baby,
who is currently crawling and getting into
absolutely everything
and opening the boxes
and pulling on the strings
and finding the things
that he's not supposed to find.
So what he needs is a Yes space.
He needs a play space
where I can put him down
and know that he has everything
he needs to play safely
and that he can't get
into the dangerous things.
If you wanna know more about a Yes space,
I have a video all about the importance
and the guidelines for a Yes space.
But here I just wanna
take you on a tour of ours
and show you the types of
toys that are available
to my baby.
So what I actually did was I
took our IKEA TROFAST units,
we have three of them, and
I used our play kitchen,
our IKEA play kitchen, and
as you can see I blocked off
half of the playroom.
Well, really it's more like
a third or even a quarter,
a small area of the play
room in the back there.
And so my baby currently
cannot get through.
Soon he'll probably be
able to move those drawers
out of the way and climb
through those holes.
He's already shown me that
he's a little bit starting
to do that, and so I'll
have to get creative
on how to block those further,
maybe even nailing in
boards so that he actually
really cannot get through.
But you could use gates,
you can use boards,
you can use furniture like a couch.
But anything that you need in
order to block off an area,
and then that area is the Lego area.
That is the area where my
kids can play with small toys.
But anything facing this side of the room
is going to be baby-friendly,
such as our magnet tiles,
things like wooden blocks
that are great for babies
that he can chew on that are
safe for him, large enough,
things like our play kitchen
and play kitchen items,
and these squeaky things that
are also good for chewing,
some empty space, just white drawers.
And we also have my Lego bag is there,
but he obviously cannot use that.
And we also have music,
which we play for our baby
quite often here in the playroom,
just different CDs and
kids music and stories
and that kind of thing,
which we play over here
on our very old-fashioned CD player.
So I also put some books here for him,
even though our books stay upstairs.
But I sometimes sit and read for him.
I love having a little touch of green,
some nature inside our playroom.
I think it really brightens up the space.
But this is how I've set it
up so that he can sit in here,
and guys, you know, often people ask me,
when does independent play start?
Well, it starts from age zero.
I mean, this baby, and all of my babies,
have been playing
independently from age zero.
It starts with putting a baby on the floor
and just letting them be, letting
them explore their bodies,
letting them explore their surroundings,
making sure that you have surroundings
that they can explore, and
making sure that they get to be
on the floor.
And my baby plays for pretty
long stretches of time.
If he's not hungry or tired,
that's what he's doing.
He's playing.
And as much as he would
absolutely love to get
into the older kids' toys,
having it set up this way
protects their play as well.
One thing that I have tried in the past
is putting the older
children inside a playpen.
Like I used the summer infant playpen,
and you could even put your Lego in there.
But their creations have expanded
and they need so much space
and their friends come over
and play with it right now,
that we really wanted to
make a little Lego room,
directly and dedicated for that.
And so it can easily be that
all four of the children
will be playing in here
and they'll all be safe.
The kids in the Lego room
have to kind of climb in.
They've gotta wrangle themselves in.
But they feel satisfied
that once they're there,
their creations and the
worlds that they build
and everything are not
going to be disrupted
by their baby brother.
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It's also really fun to rotate
things out in this play space
for the baby to keep it
interesting for the baby,
not by using things that
flash lights and make sounds
and entertain the baby, but
rather just by adjusting
the space to find things
that the baby can be more
challenged by, such as
suddenly putting this mat in
or this bean bag in with my baby
who's just kind of learning
to stand up and crawl.
This is a full-on movement zone for him.
This is like a little Gymboree for him.
He learns to stretch his muscles
and to climb on different
things in a safe way.
So the types of things
that I would have in here
are the types of toys that are gentle,
that are big enough for baby to chew on,
that are simple and straightforward.
I also really love having a floor mirror,
and then rotating in and
out some climbing options.
You could just use
pillows from your couch.
If you have some kind of
low chair or little wagon
that's weighted down that
your baby could climb on,
that could be a good option.
But anything that allows
a baby to start to stretch
and move their muscles in a new way.
And finally we've also hung up
and rotated in our baby swing.
This is just a simple bucket swing.
And we kind of cushioned him in the front
so he doesn't fall forward,
because he's still a little small for it.
But he loves being in this swing.
And sometimes if he's,
you know, a little fussy,
not really wanting to
crawl around on the floor,
wanting to be held, but I
am busy, or I, you know,
whatever, can't hold him at that moment,
I'm with another child, he
could be very, very happy
just swinging around in this
swing for a very long time.
And because we've hooked it
up with the 360-swivel piece,
and that is from Fun & Function,
I will link to it in the
description box below,
it means that he can spin around,
not just going forward and back,
which is actually a really healthy motion.
Of course, you don't want
your baby to get too dizzy
or to go too fast, which
does sometimes happen.
But just having that
ability to move around,
he really, really enjoys this new addition
to our play space.
And I highly recommend
it if you do have a hook
and you have a little one at home,
swings don't have to be only
for those older children.
You can have a swing that is
suitable for a smaller baby.
It's a great way for
them to just chill out
and have some fun.
If you're looking for some tips
on how to start decluttering,
simplifying, and setting up
the various play zones in your home,
head on over to theparentingjunkie.com.
Sign up for my newsletter
and get your free guide,
10 Easy Steps to Create a
Play-Inducing Haven in Your Home.
I would love to give that to you.
It will give you a lot of different ideas
on which toys you need,
on how to declutter,
and on how to set up your play zones.
And if you want to head
on over to Facebook
and join Love Parenting
with Avital Facebook group,
we would love to welcome you in.
And I'd love to see
pictures of your play space,
particularly play spaces
that are baby-friendly.
I think it would be so cool
if we could share ideas
and pool our wisdom together there.
Now is the time to
subscribe to the channel,
to share this episode out with anyone
with a little baby at home.
And give me a love in the comments below
so that I know this was helpful for you.
Next week, Team Parenting
Junkie is taking a week off
and we will be resuming
our regular weekly videos
with a lot more to come, come January.
