I recently took J to Habitot. He LOVED it. And I thought it was by far the best in-door kids play space we’ve been too. It was really a playspace, vs. focusing on creative activities-- so perfect for this age. I still love Randall Museum (a ton) and I think as J gets older, the arts and crafts workshops there will be fantastic, but right now he’s cool with crafting with Mama, but he also really wants to play grocery store, and with water tables, and climb in tunnels.

You know, it would be great if he keeps loving say, the tunnels, as he grows into painting, or woodshop, or clay. And it would be really great if there was a space that encompassed and embraced these different aspects of “play”. Maybe real estate is just too expensive in the Bay Area? Further south there is room there are some big play spaces, but they seem more plastick-y, a little less thoughtful.

Meanwhile, J has woken up 2 mornings in a row asking to go back to “Habipop”. From what we saw, there were 3 train table,a grocery store/lunch counter playspace, an art room, a toy lending library, a water area with 3 water tables, a snack room (real snack room), a “chill out”/reading/lounge room, a toy lending library, a “tunnel wall”, and an “airplane cockpit”. From the outside the airplane cockpit looked like an airplane cockpit, and I am not quite sure how it was put together. Inside, it was DIY goodness: 2 small swivel chairs and steering wheels up front, behind in the “engineer” area, simply old telephones and keyboards screwed to slant-mounted shelving. I am not so into plastic toys for kids (Initially for aesthetic/sensory reasons, but having read this, out of panic!, too), but this seemed like a cool +crafty+ renewable-ish approach to using-what-you have and providing some context for imaginative play.



I am about to begin a big clean up of our utility room/sun porch, and I think instead of throwing out some of our old/useless electronic components I might try making something like this for J.