All the Little Caterpillars love the wheeled toys - are they just good fun?

We have been pretty proud of our achievements with the outdoor garden area and many of you will know that we abolished all our lightweight plastic ride on toys over a year ago and gradually started to replace them with higher quality 'Winther' Ride Ons.  We have found that since replacing the cheaper plastic versions children have a better quality play. We used to find that children would take more pleasure in just picking them up and throwing them around than in actually using them to ride on but with these heavier and more robust toys they can't do that because they are too heavy. We have sourced a range, or fleet as I like to call it, of different types and sizes so that all the children can enjoy at least some of them depending on their physical ability.

The taxi.....

The ones, like the taxi above, and the 3 seater encourage children to co-operate and help each other out.  It is undeniable that all the children love playing on the ride on toys. There is never really a day when they are not chosen for play at all.  We are lucky to have the space to create this wonderful decked area on which children can practise their skills in control, balance, spatial awareness and hand to eye co-ordination.  That's not forgetting that there are always opportunities for turn-taking, sharing and generally being friendly and enjoying the company of other children.  To add extra challenge we have installed a ramp and the children learn how to safely manoeuvre themselves up and down it. 

What we have tried to avoid is a space where wheeled toy play dominates everything or that other activities are prevented from taking place.  Fortunately this does not have to be the case here because we have a very large outdoor play area in which children are free to move around at will. 

The few boundaries that we have set include limiting the number of ride on toys out on the decking at any one time to 2.  This means that the decking does not get swamped by them and there is less chance of collision or accident.  The children can choose which ride ons they want out and are encouraged to ask, or indicate by pointing if they do not have the speaking skills, which ones they want at any one time.  We do encourage them to access them themselves where they can but some of these ride ons are heavy and for little ones it sometimes not quite possible.  We also ask children to wear footwear, shoes or wellies when they are outside because if they go over a foot then they do hurt.

What happens when demand for the ride ons is more than 2?

When several children all want to play then it's time for turn-taking or perhaps swapping one of the individual toys for one that 3 children can use....negotiation skills!  While children are waiting they may decide to go off and do something else which is fine.  Just pop your name down on the chalkboard (with help if you need it) and wait until your turn comes up (encouraging emergent writing skills).

What next?

We are currently adding additional ramps to add interest, experimenting with different surfaces and introducing a track so watch this space....