Under the Sea

I brought out Munchkin's little scissors again recently, to discover that he is now able to use them.  Just.

So we spent some time cutting up bits of paper, much to his great delight.

I manage to avoid having him cut any fingers, clothing, furniture, and various other assorted objects that took his fancy.  Despite the scissors being child-proof ones that are incredibly blunt, they are now back in the locked drawer.  I'm just a little paranoid about small child with sharp object when I am not looking, so for now they are a 'closely supervised' item, but one which can come out regularly now that he's at a point of being able to use them.

Young children find cutting incredibly difficult.  There's so much coordination involved in simply holding a pair of scissors.  Munchkin gets that you put your thumb in one hole and fingers in another, but usually ends up holding the scissors upside down to cut.  Previously, he couldn't get them to cut at all - the scissors always seemed to end up on their side, a common issue for littlies when they first try using scissors.  Cutting is a really useful skill to have, and sometimes overlooked beside things like knowing your alphabet and counting.  But cutting helps prepare a child to hold a pencil well, to maneuver their fingers with dexterity, and to do things like maintain a straight line, or make their hand follow their mind's desire for a curve!

Before our cutting time, Munchkin had already spent a considerably amount of time carefully sticking a whole lot of beautiful stickers all over his table.  This gave me an idea.

Out came some blue cardboard, a small container of sand (from the sandpit), and some glue.

Munchkin sprinkled sand onto PVA glue to make the sand on the ocean floor.

I found it really interesting watching him, noticing how difficult it still is for his fingers to manage the coordination involved in sprinkling the sand exactly where he wants it.  And my son has really good fine motor coordination.

I carefully pried fish, starfish, and crabs from the table and transferred them to cards.

Then glued bits of his green cut-outs on as seaweed.

Ta-da!  Under the sea cards, tucked into the card box for using another day.

Amy