DJ received this My Very First Games – First Orchard Game by Haba for his 2nd birthday a year ago. It said on the box 2+ but DJ wasn’t really ready for it last year. He didn’t understand taking turns and the goal of the game was lost on him because he WANTED the crow to eat the fruit and couldn’t be bothered with rolling the die. He played with it for a bit and then ignored it for a…
This was a short week with the Thanksgiving holiday. DJ selected the Brown Stair and Pink Tower together. Ever since I showed him examples on the internet he’s been very interested in building them himself. First he rebuilt the long chain that he had done before. He did this one from memory but skipped one if the blocks, so he just added it to the end. The first time he built this he had been disappointed that I didn’t take…
Earlier this week, DJ surprised me by saying, “Let’s do school!” Before this he hadn’t really shown an awareness that the fun things we do for school were different than playing with toys. I had hesitated initially to even call it school, but so many of his friends are in preschool now, and school is mentioned in books and TV shows and even his hairdresser asked if he’s in school. We worked a lot with the Land & Water forms…
The past few months have been a whirlwind of activity that has amazed and excited me. But at the same time, I’ve been noticing that DJ hasn’t been settling into his schoolwork. Instead of being more focused, he’s been flittering from one project to the next. Instead of procedures becoming good habits, he’s been avoiding even the steps, like using a work mat, that he initially enjoyed. In my reading, I’ve learned that one way to get back on track…