I thought we should take a break from “child-initiated activities” and give “Mummy directed activity’ another try today.
We did an alphabet activity with the letter M, with some pasting of marcaroni pieces and paper on the letter. I tried to demonstrate how to use the glue and my stubborn tot just went “me do!”, grabbed the glue tube from my hands and insisted that he did it himself.
From how things were going for the next 15 minutes, epiphany hit me that Vygotsky’s social development theory is only applicable to docile kids and not strong-willed ones in this instance.
After battling with the marcaroni pieces, glue and paper. We jointly completed the ‘M’ activity for the day.
At least at the end of it, he knows the letter and its phonetic sound. Despite being an ‘active learning’ activity, it is not exciting nor fun enough to get him interested. K sure gives a new spin to the words ‘active learner’.
We will just have to re-visit ‘M’ for another day and maybe, ‘mosquito masks’ will be much more exciting for a tot. I am keeping my fingers crossed that school next year will have enough interesting activities to keep this tot interested.
This is just one of those days, that K just wants to do what he wants. And pretend play is all he wanted this morning.
Somehow, he equates going to the zoo = wearing a hat. So he told me he wanted to “go zoo” today, wore his hat and did his usual stuff around the house.
Wore the hat while waiting for his lunch
