Home Corners

[Guest]

I am really struggling to make the home corner in my setting exciting and invlting. I really tried with real objects but for the local advisors this was not enough and it did not look inviting. The home corner furniture is a cooker, fridge, sink, and oven all from community play.

thank you Soph xx

[AnonyMouse_3139]

Do the children use it? If so I'd say its inviting.

Can the advisors can give you some ideas or do they just say its not good enough and leave?

If its not well used ask the children what they'd like or what they have at home. We got rid of our dining table last year and now have nowhere to sit as a family except in front of the tele with trays on our laps (I really am the parent you've been warned about!!) Maybe they're not used to a kitchen with a table in it for eating at.

Do you model how to use it? Could you add, hand bags, pens for list, menus, posters showing kitchen/eating scenes food stuffs, recipe books.

Ours is a colourful mat, a table with 4 chairs initially and a combination of cupboards, sink, fridge and the usual utensils and foods. The children do all sorts in there, adding sand, collage, stikkle bricks to cook and taking things away.

[AnonyMouse_19802]

Mmm we had a very poor effort.....our 'furniture' finally fell apart and we couldnt afford to replace it so just have the plastic little tykes effort that was in the outdoor area. BUT we have improvised..........lovely posters, depicting cooking, different families etc, egg boxes and trays, Homepride flour boxes, real utensils, but whats really ignited play is the tuff spot or trays with rice, pasta potatoes etc.

[AnonyMouse_1027]

i find if you add cot babies and nappies that usually works

[Guest]

we have the house all first term and just add things in to follow interests. at moment it's parties as 4 children have been 4 in the last 2 weeks and some had parties/gave out invitations so now they have all had this experience. other week was cleaning bits - real, e.g. feather dusters and yellow ones, j-cloths etc. it'll become a christmas house in december - sorry to mention the c-word! x

[AnonyMouse_14268]

we have the house all first term and just add things in to follow interests. at moment it's parties as 4 children have been 4 in the last 2 weeks and some had parties/gave out invitations so now they have all had this experience. other week was cleaning bits - real, e.g. feather dusters and yellow ones, j-cloths etc. it'll become a christmas house in december - sorry to mention the c-word! x

Bah humbug!!

[AnonyMouse_14268]

We added real baking trays and bun tins with the silicone bun cases and cooking books. They really liked this and it inspired a birthday party theme.

[AnonyMouse_3139]

Trays from boxes of chocolates and chocolate playdough :rolleyes:

[AnonyMouse_1469]

well, our home corner/role play room has the same units that you have,Soph, plus the dishwasher and a welsh dresser attachment. The cupboards have bakewar in them, so tins, trays, oven gloves etc. The fridge has packets, tins, eggs etc. On top of the fridge we have a CP tool corner, which has utensils ( real ones) such as a masher, pastry brushes, slotted sppons, fish slices etc. We have a set of cutlery ( Ikea) and we have an aluminium tea set which is about 40-45 years old ( really lovely) and a china tea set ( the china one from Ikea), both tea sets are dispalyed on the welsh dresser to begin with, but are the taken down and used as the children see fir. On the cooker, we have real pots and pans, kettle etc, again, these are about 40 years old but in super condition. We have a nice soft rug down ( Ikea bargain corner, ex-display, so cheap!) and under the table and chairs ( CP) we have a big round seagrass rug ( Ikea, £16). ..........clothes for dressing up are on hooks on the wall, and we also have a shop (CP) in there..............I am loathe to admit we have plastic fruit/veg/sushi/bread/fish/crabs etc in wicker baskets ( I cannot bring myself to give the children real food to play with, and the painted wooden stuff chips terribly very quickly, so plastic it is for now). we also have a bucket full of fake flowers as the children wanted a flower shop a while ago, so we got some nice ones in poundland. There's a till on the shop and a little wooden phone ( about 25 years old), oh and a couple of wooden irons ( very old CP ones) WE also have a lovely ( I love it anyway!) treasure chest in there, but this sometimes goes walkabout, as the pirates come in when we're not there and they LOVE to hide it ( trouble is though, they sometimes leave the map behind, and X marks the spot, so we have to go looking for it!). The chest is full of gold coins, candlesticks, crowns, pearls bracelets, and HUGE diamonds that the pirates must have looted from a giant ( they are actually old napking ring jewels.......poundland i think?) and some goblets ( various charity shops) we have some ornaments around on wndow sills etc, so it all looks quite homely........busy, but nice. The children spend a lot of time in there, so I guess they like it. It sounds like it's a big room, but it's not, and it sounds very full, which it maybe is, but it doesn't seem to be..........oh yes, there's a big rocking horse in there as well!) and a large mirror on one wall.................and a box of hats........

[AnonyMouse_19782]

I am really struggling to make the home corner in my setting exciting and invlting. I really tried with real objects but for the local advisors this was not enough and it did not look inviting. The home corner furniture is a cooker, fridge, sink, and oven all from community play.

thank you Soph xx

 

Have you had a look at Communication Friendly Spaces site, you should be able to find some inspiration on there for setting out inviting areas. Also this week in Nursery World Page 32 there is a rather lovely looking home corner

[AnonyMouse_39602]

well, our home corner/role play room has the same units that you have,Soph, plus the dishwasher and a welsh dresser attachment. The cupboards have bakewar in them, so tins, trays, oven gloves etc. The fridge has packets, tins, eggs etc. On top of the fridge we have a CP tool corner, which has utensils ( real ones) such as a masher, pastry brushes, slotted sppons, fish slices etc. We have a set of cutlery ( Ikea) and we have an aluminium tea set which is about 40-45 years old ( really lovely) and a china tea set ( the china one from Ikea), both tea sets are dispalyed on the welsh dresser to begin with, but are the taken down and used as the children see fir. On the cooker, we have real pots and pans, kettle etc, again, these are about 40 years old but in super condition. We have a nice soft rug down ( Ikea bargain corner, ex-display, so cheap!) and under the table and chairs ( CP) we have a big round seagrass rug ( Ikea, £16). ..........clothes for dressing up are on hooks on the wall, and we also have a shop (CP) in there..............I am loathe to admit we have plastic fruit/veg/sushi/bread/fish/crabs etc in wicker baskets ( I cannot bring myself to give the children real food to play with, and the painted wooden stuff chips terribly very quickly, so plastic it is for now). we also have a bucket full of fake flowers as the children wanted a flower shop a while ago, so we got some nice ones in poundland. There's a till on the shop and a little wooden phone ( about 25 years old), oh and a couple of wooden irons ( very old CP ones) WE also have a lovely ( I love it anyway!) treasure chest in there, but this sometimes goes walkabout, as the pirates come in when we're not there and they LOVE to hide it ( trouble is though, they sometimes leave the map behind, and X marks the spot, so we have to go looking for it!). The chest is full of gold coins, candlesticks, crowns, pearls bracelets, and HUGE diamonds that the pirates must have looted from a giant ( they are actually old napking ring jewels.......poundland i think?) and some goblets ( various charity shops) we have some ornaments around on wndow sills etc, so it all looks quite homely........busy, but nice. The children spend a lot of time in there, so I guess they like it. It sounds like it's a big room, but it's not, and it sounds very full, which it maybe is, but it doesn't seem to be..........oh yes, there's a big rocking horse in there as well!) and a large mirror on one wall.................and a box of hats........

when can i move in ??

[AnonyMouse_64]

Just as an aside, I think it's good to use things which are realistic (and using real things is often cheaper than buying replica things from the educational suppliers) but think about how they will fit. One setting I worked at used plastic picnic plates etc instead of the children's dinner sets however the table was just a small one and you couldn't actually fit two plates on it so it was hopeless for setting the table. They also had baking trays which didn't fit into the child sized cooker and pans that were so large only one could fit on the hob. The area always tended to be messy with lots of things stewn on the floor but this was mainly because they were too large to fit on the tops!

[SueFinanceManager]

We removed all the 'toy furniture' one half term and made new stuff out of big boxes.....cooker, washing machine, cupboard (box with door shape cut in it and things just got put on the floor inside ha ha) but they loved it because they had helped to make it.

 

We had a table and chairs and used paper plates and plastic cutlery and plastic picnic cups (cheap from cash & carry) and made some of the paper plates into pizzas and plates of spaghetti etc so they had food to eat.

 

Obviously didn't last for ever but when it got too tatty it just got thrown away or the cardboard recycled into something else

[Guest sn0wdr0p]

We have one of those dogs that look like they are breathing which sleeps in a dog basket and a dog bowl. I even have an odd sock basket (well I have to get rid of some from the giant odd sock basket at home) and the children use the socks for loads of activities for example making sound socks. We put fresh Herbs in the kitchen and have a comfy sofa in the corner. I tend to put carrots and other hardy vegetables in the kitchen which are often used for printing. We also have loads of dolls and accessories. Apron, cloths and loads of baking stuff.

[Guest]

Anyone got any photos of their home corners they are willing to share?