A MINUTE OF PLAY: GRAPAT WEEKLY CALENDAR
Our hands are the most powerful tools we have. We connect to the world and discover it with the help of them. Most of the learning actually happens through them. It is especially true for children: when they can work with their hands, when they can touch, manipulate, they gain a very concrete understanding of materials. With the help of their hands even abstract concepts, such as numbers or time, become more easily comprehendible.
Just look at this Grapat Seven Moons calendar. The seven little acorn Nins are arranged in a circle, like a little gathering around the campfire to tell stories. And indeed, these simplistic and colourful pegdolls tell stories: the stories of children’s days, following each other as the wheel of the week turns around. Their colours talk to children and allow to tell them apart. According to Waldorf pedagogy each day, and each pegdoll of the week corresponds to a different colour. Monday is purple, Tuesday is red, Wednesday and Thursday is the energetic yellow and orange, Friday is the calmer green, Saturday is the freer blue and Sunday is white. A small family ritual to wake up the Nins in the morning, and say goodbye to the before bedtime and put them to sleep, will help grasp the meaning of passage of time. It will also make weekly rhythm predictable and understandable to our little people who live so intensively in the here and now. It becomes clearer which colours or days we go to kindergarden, when we meet grandma or how many we still need to sleep until birthday or some other ocassion.
And while the main function of the toy makes it ingenious already, we do not only recommend it when the child becomes interested in time beginning at 2,5-3, or when you need it as a helpful tool in establishing a weekly rhythm. There is always so much more to Grapat toys what adults’ eyes can’t see. This is also a set that can be introduced earlier, grow with your child over time finding new and new ways to be played with.
To a younger child give a pegdoll or a cup in a treasure basket, or just separately and let her discover how she can fit them together. Then why not to give her the three primary colours and wait for the heureka spark when she realises that they can be matched by colour. When heuristic play gives more space to imaginative play the pegdolls will find their way into a lot of adventures, too, created by your child’s imagination.
A Minute of Play is a video series by Malih nog naokrog for those parents and educators who would like to understand the meaning and developmental concept behind a toy, and gain a deeper understanding of play. This episode, featuring the Waldorf-inspired Grapat Seven Moons Weekly Calendar is also available to watch on our YouTube channel both in English and Slovene.
The wonderful pictures and video are made by Jasmina Lozar. All rights reserved.
