Not to be out done by his older brother, Nicholas made his own sunflower seed-butter and jelly sandwich yesterday.� (Nut allergy, remember?)
Cooking with children being what it is, a certain Beagle named Buster waited patiently for disaster to ensue. Unfortunately for Buster, nothing happened. Fortunately for Buster, Nicholas fed him the sandwich when I wasn’t looking. Nicholas is not a fan of sandwiches.
Video games are very good for hand eye coordination. (So they say.)� You know what else is good and twice as cheap? Lima beans. Take a bag of cheap beans, two bowls, and a spoon. Present it to your 2.5 year old, and prepare to catapult into the Cool Mom Hall of Fame.
They will take their task (moving the beans from one bowl to the other) very seriously.
You can expect a few “bean overboard” moments, but they resolve themselves quickly by hand or by Beagle. Try your hardest to resolve it by hand instead of by Beagle.
Once one bowl is empty, they can repeat the process. Or, you can try to pour the beans back in the bowl if that sounds more exciting. However, your 2.5 year old may notice that every time he approaches the target bowl his pudgy fingers inadvertently pushes it away from him. Troubling.
He has no choice but to put down the bowl and recruit your help as the official target bowl holder. Things move smoothly after that stroke of genius.
I wish my double chin was half as cute.
Success.
Hand-Eye Coordination Games:� Available at a supermarket and kitchen near you.
I love how intense coordination goes hand in hand with the tongue sticking out…my kids do the same thing! Soooocute!
Thanks, Ariel! I think these shirts in your shop are so cute!
Your kids are seriously some of the cutest I’ve ever seen – especially with the little tongue sticking out in concentration! I may just betroth my little girl (she’s 18 months old) to Nicholas because he’s so darn aborable. They’re not likely to ever meet though, so that probably won’t work. Drats!
I was totally having a “3 Men and a Baby” moment with the cut-out in the background there.
I love simple activities like this. Who says the best toys have to cost a ton of money. Another fun activity. Buy some pasta (rigatoni, macaroni, etc), mix up several colors of food coloring with rubbing alcohol and let pasta soak. Strain and let dry. Get some yarn and start stringing. They make the neatest necklaces, bracelets and more!
What a great idea! I am so doing that with my boys tomorrow!
Sticking out your tongue is crucial to focused concentration! Your son is such a little cutie and it’s obvious he had a great time as a bean counter ;)
(I also wish my double chin was as cute as his.)
I am fairly new to your blog and I really am enjoying it! I think this is a fantastic idea. Thanks for sharing.
so cute. i love the intense concentration he is showing and his satisfied smile after completing the assignment.
Awwww! He (almost) makes me want another two year old around!
Hehe, I love Buster’s expectant face in the background. It’s so cute/funny to me how kids hold their tongues just right when working hard.
Beans are an awesome learning tool! When I taught I used beans all the time.
If you play your cards right in a couple of more years you won’t ever have to cook another meal. This is a total win win situation!
Jules….trying the cake today, sounds so wonderful, hubby and I love anything chocolate.
Ok, so here is something really fun for you to try with the boys, when my 33 year old son was little he loved to play with cars and dump trucks, the small size ones like match cars you can hold in little hands, so what I did was I took a 13×9 pan and I took some flour yes, flour you bake with and I would fill the pan with some flour( you can do as much as almost 1/3 the pan full ) or less. and I would place it in the kitchen counter and he loved to play with his cars and dump trucks in there, making mounds and tracks. He had a blast. Now I do it with my granddaughter and she has a ball. I know they rather go outside and do it in the sand or dirt but this is just another fun way to do inside and it is waay cleaner. Have fun with the kiddos. Hugs ~ Savanna and Charlie’s nana.
How adorable. And Buster makes me laugh.
We do this with rice and a spoon. Beans would be a lot less messy when spilled. I love the tongue, he’s adorable!!
“…they resolve themselves quickly by hand or by Beagle. Try your hardest to resolve it by hand instead of by Beagle.”
You kill me. That tongue kills me. Could he be any cuter with that look? This is what I will suggest for my boss at the next photoshoot, better than his suggested ‘Thinker’ pose…
The tongue, it’s killing me…. I LOVE IT.
For the 90 jazillionth time – you (+the mister) do make beautiful babies!
XOXO-K
oooh, those cheeks! so montessori of him! practical life, you know. i love watching my kids do stuff like this–the intensity, complete with tongue and mouth acrobatics, so cute. thanks for making me smile–again!
What a great flip book that would make! Great shots –
this is one of the activities commonly found in a montessori classroom, it’s purpose is delightful on many levels. What a great series of pictures. so concentrated and self directed, hooray. google montessori classrooms and you’ll see how beautifully they are arranged with many types of similar activities……..put the lima beans in two little pitchers and he can “pour” them back and forth, or hand him some tongs or a little melon baller for more lima bean transfer……called dry transfer in montessori speak!
i will have to pick up some beans for my toddler to play with. he is 2.5 too! and he has a peanut allergy so he eats that same sunbutter. i have yet to let him make his own sandwhich though. :)
i just stumbled across your blog and am enjoying reading through some of your old posts!