Learning Through Play | Edspire

This Christmas was Matilda’s first Christmas and we had learned from Esther and William that though we wanted it to be special for her she would not really care either way.

In fact during the festive period she was at her happiest rustling wrapping paper from other people’s presents.

And when she was given a wrapped present of her own it did not remain hers for long as it was devoured by her paper ripping siblngs who have an insatiable appetite for presents!

With all of this in mind David and I decided not to wrap our presents for Matilda Mae and instead we created her a My First Christmas Box. In fact she had two of these, a present box and a sensory one. Let me tell you more.

My First Christmas Present Box

I found a large cardboard box and wrapped it in festive wrapping paper. I then put a BundleBean blanket at the bottom of the box on which to place the first layer of presents. Here we put Matilda’s first ever doll from Lamaze, a Tilly Tortoise from Kiddicare Lakeside, a beautiful monkey crochet hat and a Lilliputiens Nicky The Discovery Duck Activity Toy from Play Merrily which is just one of the greatest baby toys I have ever seen!

Over these gifts we lay more wrapping paper. The shiniest and noisiest we could find.

Then we added another layer of toys.

This layer was made up of traditional, wooden toys. A simple wooden aeroplane, a rolling shape sorter and an activity cube.

After a layer of gold paper we added some more presents. A soft stacker from Lamaze, a squeaky Penguin, some WOW bath toys, the book of One Snowy Night, a Haba mouse in a house from Play Merrily and a lullaby star show for her room.

We then added more wrapping paper on top of which we placed her stocking and some pictures made for her by Esther and William.

Inside her stocking Matilda would find a Brio rolling bell rattle, a wooden car, a wooden teething toy and some Christmas board / buggy books.

Her main presents this year were a floral rocking horse and a 7in1 EverEarth Activity Centre that she is sharing with Esther and William. It is a wonderful eco toy that they all already seem to love.

Matilda loved her box of presents. I am glad that we did not wrap them all individually. She had just as much, if not more fun this way and she got to keep the box!

The other thing that we did with all the presents for Matilda and the twins was to take them out of all their packaging and make sure that they were ready to play with as soon as they were found. It meant that Christmas morning was much less stressful and there was far less mess. A top tip to be remembered for next year.

Another thing that we will do again next year is have a Christmas Sensory Box.

My First Christmas Sensory Box

I have been researching sensory boxes for all occasions on Pinterest. It is an idea that I like and these are resources that are not only great fun for children to use but also for parents to create. I can see our Christmas Box now coming out every year and being added to in the way that we are constantly developing our family memory tree.

The Christmas Sensory Box is a box filled with festive things. I included:

red and gold tinsel
white soft furry baubles
white rough bristly baubles
a snow globe
reindeer decorations
snowman decorations
snowflake shapes
old Christmas card pictures
A soft nativity scene and characters
A small Christmas vocabulary book
wrapping paper strips
battery operated fairy lights
cuddly penguins
santa hats
santa decoration
metal snowflakes
Christmas carols CD (to listen to whilst exploring the box)
A fluffy robin red breast
a plastic Christmas pudding
a star finger puppet
an angel
an elf
Sleigh bells in varying instruments

Matilda loved exploring the sensory box and so did Esther and William. They learned the names of Mary, Joseph and Jesus. And of course, Father Christmas. They learned all the words to Jingle Bells and sang it all around the house whilst shaking their bells! The box was a success as a sensory activity and gave us all some shared festive fun. This was definitely the start of a Christmas tradition that I want to continue.

And one of the most magical memories for me of this Christmas, Matilda’s first Christmas, will be the 20 minutes or so we had together with this box of festive sensory fun before anyone else in the house got up. It was lovely! Made the start of our Christmas just wonderful!