Thursday, April 26, 2012

pipe cleaners and colandars

On my good days, when the planned kid's activity fails, I can laugh about it and remember life isn't always (or usually) perfect. This was such an activity, although we did this long enough ago that I can't remember if I managed to laugh or not.

Supplies:
Pipe cleaners
Colandar

Activity:
Try sticking pipe cleaners through the holes of a colandar, to practice fine motor skills. Loop the pipe cleaners through several holes to create fun weaving patterns.

What Actually Happened:
Genghis was nowhere close to having the dexterity for this activity, and that frustrated him to no end. Finally, he decided he just wanted all of the pipe cleaners to sit inside of the colandar. That wasn't a very fun activity for me, so I took a few pipe cleaners and formed a pair of glasses for him. Unfortunately, he kept grabbing them before I could finish and when he finally got them on he poked himself in the face with the sharp end.

We compromised by forming the pipe cleaners into different shapes (fun for me) and putting them in the colandar (fun for him).

Note: my husband formed these shapes later that evening, without Genghis's hands grabbing at them every two seconds. My shapes were much less ... discernible.

1 comment:

Sherry said...

Our newest fine-motor-skill activity with Ike is putting coins in a piggy bank slot. It is a lot of fun. He can do the quarters pretty well but has a harder time with the smaller coins. I'll admit it isn't a particularly entertaining activity for me, but it does occupy him for a quite a while.