Amy seems to like playing at a table — she likes to put things on shelves or chairs or the couch, or mama’s lap. I keep thinking of the little tables the Montessori schools have, just high enough to sit on the floor and have your activity at a reasonable height, or others with matching toddler chairs. Another thing is that they contain the activity, to an extent — helps focus, keep things together, and of course provides a firm level surface for tricky things like blocks.
We took a look at the secondhand stores in the area and found nothing. Wal-mart didn’t have anything I liked. I put in a “wanted” post at our local Freecycle group, but meanwhile this little improvisation works:
The shelf is a board left in our upstate NY house, I believe. I had covered it with fabric and used it with CD boxes (the kind my CDs come in, 30 at a time) to make some shelves in the music room there. When we moved here, it continued as a bookshelf in the music / craft room.
Now its books sit on the floor in tidy piles.
And Amy and I can sit on either side of this table with our legs stretched comfortably under it while we read, play with blocks, play the xylophone, etc.
The downside is that the “legs” aren’t attached, so it’s susceptible to being kicked or otherwise shifted apart, but that’s okay for now.
(Oh, and that’s my block creation… Amy looked at it a few times before knocking it down.)
