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Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Doctor's Office

My daughter has an amazing creative power.  I love when she gets lost in her own little world.  From trips on her horse and carriage to Nonny and Poppy’s house, to her made up songs, to her endless scenarios of what she can do with a little red box on wheels we have in our playroom.  She AMAZES me and has taught me so much in her short two years of life.  :-)  

I have a 15 month old and I am pregnant with #3… between the two of us we spend a lot of time at the doctor’s office. Daddy is in the medical field as well so we occasionally take trips to the hospital.   She loves role-playing Doctor.   She generally makes up her own situations with things we have around the playroom.  After observing and listening to her for a while now I created an environment that expanded off her play.  I set the playroom up as a doctor’s office the night before and let her wake up to it.  I should have video taped the initial reaction.  Priceless.   

I can't even begin to tell you about her visions and conversations that took place in that room for next two hours, the hour after lunch, and the hour before bed.  

You see things; and you say, 'Why?' But I dream things that never were; and I say, 'Why not?'” - George Bernard Shaw

2011


Waiting Room


Patient Table... marking the feet and head for measurement.



Measuring


Doctor's Table


Patient Chart

X-Ray Table


2012

One of my daughter's favorite things to do is to "play doctor".  A Doctor's office is created in our play room every day, at least once a day.  Watching their play evolve over time is so much fun. 

Each time they play out this scenario they fall deeper and deeper into their play.  Some of the stuff they come up with is astonishing.  



The pictures below show what they have been up to these days.  :-)  

Bandages, Band-Aid's, Alcohol wipes, scissors, and gauze.

My oldest sets this up for herself often.

She started drawing marks... AKA bumps and bruises on her dolls

Head Injury

All fixed up! 

Hard at work.  She has a lot of patients to see!

Never leave your 4 month old with "Dr. B" and Nurse M" while you get dressed. 

Real Doctor's Tools


Thanks to AK, we also added real doctor equipment to 

our play.  Here is her son's doctor bag.  

The doctor kit consists of:

***Click on the words to find out where to purchase***






2013


As you can see in the pictures below we have expanded 

off their play even more.  

A doctor's office has now become a permanent part of 

our playroom.  


Doctor's Office


This was very easy to set up.  We purchased a few shoe 

organizers and laid a shelf across the top.  We also 

hung up our old light panel to use as an x-ray viewer.  


Close-up of cubbies


Aside from the real doctor tools mentioned above, we 

also added...

Popsicle sticks, cashiers tray, test tubes, paper roll, 

petri dishes, dropper bottles, pony bills (aka pills), tape 

measure, surgical mask, lab coat, cotton balls, finger 

lights, plastic shot glasses, tweezers, Q-tips, and 

Band-aids





We also added some office materials.

What is included:

Paper, pens/markers, key board, mailboxes, scissors, 

envelopes, tape, stickers, and postal stamper.






The office can easily be "packed away".  We often do 

this if we know we have visitors coming over.  

To see more our involved doctor play please check out 

these posts...



Open Heart Surgery





Broken Bones - Orthopedics at Work






You can also check out some fun videos!


Our Children exploring real doctor tools: 


A video of my girls playing doctor back in January 2012:


Bandages and Band-Aids:








5 comments:

  1. SO adorable! Just ran across your blog on Pinterest. YAY! Love me some mommy, son play time! We are always up to something. Thanks for creating a space for me to find even more ideas!

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  2. Great post. I love how you set it up but then let her on her own to be creative. Playing pretend is so important for a developing child. I have created some forms and signs for playing pretend hospital and doctor. You can check out a freebie form and more at my website at Growing Play.

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  3. love your blog!! Thanks for all the great idea's as I have a special needs child.

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