Days Four And Five

Thursday, we had a very long day and I didn’t have time to blog. We participated in a Montessori activity that involved sticking blunt toothpicks into play dough. This activity is said to improve upon concentration in toddlers. At first, Brendan just was only interested in the play dough. He kneaded it, rolled it into a ball, made holes in it, and of course, tasted it. After about ten minutes of activities with the play dough alone, his full focus was on the toothpicks. First, I showed him how to stick the toothpicks upright, into the play dough. He tried, frustrated, several times to get them upright, but didn’t quite have the coordination to get them all the way in. After all that frustration, he finally got a toothpick stuck upright, but it didn’t end up in the play dough; it ended up sticking upright in the foam tiles of Brendan’s play room. At least, he got the idea.

                After we finished that activity, Brendan was still thoroughly engrossed with the toothpicks. I decided to make letters of the alphabet with them and use them as tools to teach him each letter. To my surprise, after 15 minutes of repeating the letters A, B and C to him, he actually remembered the letter C. He was very happy with himself when I announced that he had done an excellent job and that he was, in fact a big boy. He was still saying “C, C, C” when his dad got home from work.

                Friday, we spent the day at a friend’s house. Her little boy is twenty-one months old, so he and Brendan play well together. While at their house, we painted old thread spools black and used white pipe-cleaners to make whiskers, so that the spools resembled black cats. We thought this was a cute idea, in honor of Halloween. We then attempted to teach the boys the Halloween song “Three Black Cats,” a song that is sung to the tune of Three Blind Mice. My friend’s little boy caught on pretty well, Brendan however could only repeat “Cat, cat, cat.” The two of them were very proud of themselves.

                Brendan then was able to color with crayons for his very first time! He wasn’t really sure of the crayon’s purpose at first. He just watched Gage in amusement for a few minutes. Finally he began twirling the crayon around on the paper with a huge grin on his face. We had to remind him a few times, that crayons are for coloring on paper and not on furniture, but he had fun.  It’s amazing how the easiest activities bring the most joy.