First we played a game of copy cat. We sat across from each other at his table and I gave him 5 blocks and gave me the same five blocks. I began by saying "Watch Mommy." I put two red squares standing up and then a yellow rectangle across the tops of them. "Can you build like Mommy". Caden then built the same structure perfectly:) I did two more that he copied and then gave him a turn to build something so I could copy him. We both really enjoyed this and even showed Grandpa (he always needs to show Grandpa when he thinks it is really cool). We will definitely be doing this again.
Second, I asked Caden if he wanted to play farm with me. He did. I told him I was going to build a home for the horse and used four long rectangles to make a square. I put the horse inside and we continued to build homes for the rest of the animals together.
It will be interesting to see if any of what we did shows up in his play. Meanwhile I tried something similar with Drake...
Me and Caden loved playing trains together but, sadly Drake just wants to kick them all over like he is Baby Godzilla:) I decided that maybe a scale down would benefit him as well so I put out 8 curved tracks(enough to make a circle) and five train cars. I quietly sat down and started building without telling Drake anything. Caden and Drake are so different, Caden can be invited but Drake has to think it was his idea:) After playing by myself for a little bit and making plenty of train sound effects Drake wandered over and went to kick my trains around:( I quietly took him in my lap and said "Mommy's playing with these". I played for about two more seconds and then said, "I'm all done, I'm going to clean up" I put the trains back in the box, put them on the shelf and then walked away. Sweet Drake stood there looking at the trains. He walked over, took them off the shelf and started putting them together in a wavy line and putting the trains on the track! After nap time I built a circle and started playing with the trains again. This time, when Drake came over I said, "Do you want to play trains?". He happily sat down and played. I was very excited about the results and I wonder how often I bombard the boys with too much too soon? I'm going to try this approach with more activities and see how it goes:)
Wow! You're inspiring me to try new things with my son. Way to go!!
ReplyDeleteSo great to see a child so young deep in imaginative play. If you can get hold of enough track to make his tain set run in a sideways eight pattern, when he crosses the midline he will be activating and integrating both sides of his brain at that point. We say to our special needs kids, 'We go up the hill ( up through the middle- the centre of the 8) and round the corner ( around the circular portion) to meet in the middle again. Do that several times around and then swap hands and do it again.
ReplyDeleteI have really enjoyed reading your posts and have linked you to my parent blog area on my teacher blog.