Feeding the Fish

This morning we did an activity we called Feeding the Fish. I pulled out an ice cube tray from IKEA, some toast tongs and some pom-poms, and we had fun "Feeding the Fish".
We then did a little scissor work. The Punk cut between the stickers, and then we played with the "cards" he made for a while. Easy to make - they are free stickers I get in some Movie Club advertisements (I am cheap like that) and the Punk knows the characters, so it makes for good patterning and Memory type games. Then we moved on to the bowl of Buttons. I had these ready for him - 3 of each color, but all different shapes. He sorted them, then used his chopsticks to place them back in the bowl.

He's getting so much better with his chopsticks! We have a second pair we take with us to eat sushi, and he feels pretty confident when he picks up food from his plate and it makes the entire trip to his mouth! Practical life, indeed.

This post was linked to: Tot School

Feelin' Groovy

Slow down, you move too fast

You've got to make the morning last...

We did a little spooning work this morning. I love the sound of the glass beads plinking into the bowls. The Punk knows to be careful, and go slow with these, because we had a broken bead in our original package, and "glass is fwa-gile, Mommy".

His best friend, his confidant, his Pepper Cat watched us as we did our school Work this morning. She is irreplaceable, and the love of his life. I kick myself for not buying two of her when Ikea still sold them.

We moved on to beads and chopsticks. The Punk likes these chopsticks a lot. Other than beads and puff balls I don't know many other activities he could "tong" with them. It's time to get creative so he can use these more often! I love early mornings when he does work that helps him concentrate and take things slow. Sometimes we rush too often in the a.m. and it's nice to have an activity to do that lets us sit and listen to music while he works.

This post linked to: Montessori Monday

Chopsticks are for Eating

Today I planned on showing the Punk how to transfer/count using his new chopsticks. Things didn't go so well. First, he (in usual Punk fashion) explained to me that chopsticks are for eating not for school. I showed him how he can pick up the glass stones with the chopsticks, and put them in the boxes on the paper. He relented, and tried his best. But, he started to meltdown a bit.

So I gave him the tongs instead. Things were better, but still not great. The Punk was very stressed about this activity, and was using lots of negative language (I can't, it's hard, etc.) so I suggested we stop and try something else - to which he went ballistic and said he was going to "finish dis fing!"

So I took the tongs and chopsticks and had him use his fingers instead. And then I found out what the problem had been all along. Some of the glass stones were turning over (flat side up) when he was using the tools to place them on the page. Once they were all "correct" and flat sides down he was fine and dandy again.

Why isn't he this particular about cleaning his room?