Lately Kale has been all about lacing. He'll spend a solid 20 minutes (which is about 4 hours in toddler time) lacing beads onto pipe cleaners, making everyone he knows - including the cat - a bracelet. We decided to mix it up a little the other day and I brought out some different lacing activities that we had sitting in the closet. I mean, I can only wear so many bracelets before people start thinking I'm just being flashy....
Activity: lacing
Age: 27 months
Materials: We used Lace & Trace Shapes and Alex Toys Wooden String & Beep Stringing Set. Check out Simply Montessori - Adventures in Lacing for additional products and some links to great DIY lacing materials.
Recognition of Identity
Kale was immediately drawn to the String & Beep set - which is basically a long piece of string with wood on one end and bunch of wooden cars, trucks, etc. with holes through them. As he started to lace them onto the string, I asked him if he could tell me which each one was. He's been really into cars and trucks lately, so he was happy to tell me if it was a jeep or an ambulance or his Uncle Karl's truck.
Recognition of Identity:
Again, the String & Beep set worked particularly well for the second part of the "lesson." I would suggest putting a certain car or truck on (i.e. "how about putting the yellow bus next?"), and he'd happily oblige. Even though the focus was on lacing, this was still a good activity for working on his colours and vocabulary.
Discrimination between Similar Objects:
Kale was less interested in working with the Lace & Trace Shapes (I bet if they were in the shape of a truck he'd be more into it!). I think it's a bit too tedious for his age. I often had to help him out and I normally find that once I'm involved, he gives up faster. However, we did spend some time with me gently encouraging him to lace into the hole next to the one he'd just drawn his string through. Since all the holes looked the same, I could see him seriously focusing on trying to figure out which exactly was the "next" one.
Over the course of the afternoon, we spent HOURS in his playroom lacing and beading. I'm pretty sure we have enough bracelets to open at Etsy shop....Any buyers?
what a cutie. and I love the idea of getting these kiddos working and doing things with their eyes and hands! :)
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Cole is not much into lacing anything. We have a melissa and doug set we received as a present but he's just not interested in it yet. I wonder if the truck lacing set would be more interesting...
ReplyDeleteHe is getting so big! Rylin has a similar lacing set and is really getting the hang of stringing the beads. I'm amazed at how it holds her attention for a good 15 min!
ReplyDeleteSo cool! I found your blog through the Montessori Monday at Living Montessori Now. We have a 16-month-old, and maybe her dexterity soon will be such that she can do some lacing!
ReplyDeleteOMG Logan would love this! I have to get something like this.
ReplyDeletegreat activity! I will remember this one :D we also have one of those "mouse and cheese" montessori wooden activities and he loves to wiggle them so maybe he would like to do this as well. We will try
ReplyDeleteLove this! Thanks so much for sharing. I'm completely ignorant of what montessori is, actually, but I've seen it mentioned a lot around the net. I'll bet my little girl would love to make bracelets in a few months when she's older.
ReplyDeleteThis is great, I can't wait to try these activities with Ben!!!
ReplyDeleteI have to look into the lace and string. My son is a bit older but I had started him on lacing cards around Kale's age and it was a disaster. He had a very hard time with them and got frustrated so easily. This would interest him and build his confidence. I'm co hosting the GFC Hop and found your blog through it. So glad I got to stop by.
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