Drawing diagrams of trains and keeping carriages in order

My three year old likes to have his train built in a certain way. He can get very upset when it is broken or when we have to put it away. I had been thinking of a way to help him with this and came up with a matching and sorting activity. We have a wooden train with 13 carriages and engines of four different colours. Using paper and crayons I showed my son how we could draw a diagram of the train and record how the carriages are positioned.

Boy with train carriage

First we organised all the carriages according to colour. B loves catagorising things at the moment and enjoyed seeing them all lined up neatly.

Then we counted them and drew the right number of boxes on a piece of paper.

Diagram ready to be coloured

Then B built a train. Together we coloured the boxes, well, I did most of the colouring. He prefers line drawings at the moment. I decided that the idea of the activity was to talk about diagrams, and colouring was a secondary and less important skill at this moment.

Finished train

Then he decided to make a little change. So we drew the boxes again and coloured them accordingly. He was very pleased.

Two slightly different trains

I hope to add to our list of trains in the future, if he builds different trains. But at the moment, he likes them in this order, so in this order they go!

It was lovely to talk about the differences in the carriages and how they should go together.  I’m sure my little boy developed some important skills as we

• talked about colour, shape and size
• created a picture diagram of something real.
• matched carriages as we built a train.

He also get less upset when the train is damaged as he knows it can be easily put together again - in the same order!

Little Red Caboose and Dad Playing Guitar

Jumping and Counting with Painting Tape

One day we were measure how far B can jump using some painter’s tape. This tape was the perfect thing for quickly marking how far he went each time, as we didn’t need scissors and it is easy to take up too. This tape has become an important part of our craft cupboard as it is simple and quick for both of us to use. It is great for finger control as he picks at the end and strengthens them as he rips the end.

A Roll of Painter's Tape

After jumping long distance, I had the idea that he could jump from one piece of tape to another. I could place them in shapes or spirals or around the room. He loved the idea. It became a perfect opportunity to practice counting as the tape is easy to write on. 

Tape with 4 written on it

He’s an expert at counting up to 10, but higher than that still needs practice, so it gave him opportunity to recognise the higher numbers and hear them over and over as I said them and he jumped up to 20. A few days later, I heard him practicing on his own!

Making Cork Boats with Colourful Shape Sails

A friend gave me a big bag of corks. The most obvious thing to do was play around in a big tub of water. We watched them float. We laughed at them pop up through the surface when we pushed them under. We blew them over the surface and had cork boat races.

Then we talked about how they looked like little boats and how we could make them look more like boats. "Let's make some sails" was the joyous suggestion.

So we chose six shapes.

Colourful Shapes

We picked six corks and found some cocktail sticks.

Corks and Cocktail Sticks

And we watched them float, tip and capsize.

Circle Sail on Cork Boat

Triangle Sail on Cork Boat

Heart Sail on Cork Boat

Then we made a giant sail which, to my surprise, worked!

Huge Pink Sail

And then the corks were under attack!

Trying to Cut a Cork with Plastic Scissors

 

Definite Boundaries

When reading about encouraging creativity, a common theme is allowing kids to make mess. This is not something I am against. In fact I actively encourage it, but then B is not particularly messy. Even so, I like the idea of allowing mess within boundaries, as all art needs a frame - especially a two year old’s first attempts at abstract art.

One lovely sunny afternoon my son was being the artist with his diggers and trucks on the balcony. The dirt I had given him was finding it’s way across the whole area. It was the first time I’d managed to get out there this Spring so I really wanted to give it a good tidy and clean. The mess spread, my sweeping became pointless and my patience was waning.



Then I found the chalk. The previous few days had been all about shapes, so I drew some more for him. A very big square. I called it his mess box and swept all his dirt into it. He then insisted on boxes for all his vehicles. It was a serious task as all vehicles need a good parking place, don’t they? And after that he was happy to play in his mess box long enough for me to clean the balcony.


As he played in his box, I saw how he had to find solutions to his games: Roads had to be rerouted, building sites contained and footsteps carefully placed. I’m not sure, but maybe he made more mess than usual because he had his very own mess box.

B did these things:

• Talked about shapes and sizes when measuring all the boxes we drew
• Found a way to play within a restricted zone
• Moved his body in news ways as he navigated the small(ish) space
• Created new storylines for his diggers, cars and buses
• Gained some confidence in his own independence while he played alone
• Enjoyed making a mess within a set boundary

Paint Bags

My son is going through a phase of not liking messy hands. My image of enjoying crazy painting, gooey play and sticky craft with my two year old has been shattered. It is also making me think differently about crafts and how to make it fun for him - not just for me!

We tried using ziplock bags for mixing paint and enjoyed it, until the bag developed a hole. However, my son seemed a little disappointed about not having something to keep at the end.

As it is Spring, most of the craft ideas I see are about flowers and butterflies. These are things he likes, but what he really loves is vehicles. So I cut three pieces of card to fit three bags, drew a (very basic) picture of a car, a bus and a train on them and we were ready to go.

The first bag, the car, got all the colours sqeezed in - red, blue, yellow and white. The second was only given blue as it was a train and that is what colour Thomas is! We didn't get round to doing the bus. We did them one at a time, pressing down on the paint so it spread across the picture. The colours on the car didn't mix quite as much as I had hoped, but the effect was interesting as we cut open the bag and pulled the plastic away. The paint on the train soaked right into the cardboard showing the pattern underneath.

Sometimes I think he enjoys preparing the activities more than doing them. He talked a lot about the measuring and cutting, and then was quiet during the spreading of the paint. I have to really hold my tongue to stop myself telling him what to do. I always have an idea what I want to achieve but have to remind myself that it is his actions and not the finished work that counts!

Some things we achieved:

• talking about size and shape when cutting the cardboard to fit in the bags
• discussing different vehicles that he wanted me to draw, and parts of the vehicles
• choosing colours for the vehicles and how much paint to put in the bag
• using fingers and palms to move the paint around
• learning about colours mixing and liquid moving
• I had practice in not telling him how to make his art

The results are pretty good and look interesting on the wall. It's a really simple and quick activity. I was disappointed that we couldn't see the pictures well underneath the paint, but maybe we can find a solution to that through a brain-storming session beforehand, hmm. It's something we can do often and find different techniques.

Breaded Rabbit

I enjoy looking for new activities for us to do. There are so many creative ideas and fun activities. Recently we found our own - at the dinner table.

We were eating salad and bread. B held up a half eaten slice of bread.

"Rabbit" he said "Hopping rabbit". And he hopped it around the table, let it eat some lettuce and have a nap. Then he took a big bite from it!

Throughout the meal he made a swimming turtle, slithering snake and little pig. We talked about how they moved and ate. It made dinner very lively.

So although I love finding new activities to try out, it is even more enjoyable to watch B create his own games. We had a long conversation with lots of new words, ate lots and lots of healthy food and gave his imagination a little work out. Never say don't play with your food!

Paper Cubes

I used to love making 3D shapes from one sheet of paper as a child. I've always like creating something which seems completely different from the original material. I had a book full of shapes to build with designs by M C Escher which entertained me for hours. So, after playing a game involving a die with colours I decided to make a cube with B. I had no idea how well the activity would turn out. It was a spur of the moment thing late in the evening as he was wide awake after a long long nap in the afternoon.

He was fascinated with the process: drawing the pattern, cutting it precisely and then gluing it in place. It was like magic as the flat, oddly-shaped pattern became a real cube! He loves numbers, but letters are the new thing right now, so I wrote a - f on the sides. It was a success. We played "Find something which starts with..." for a relatively long time. The most fun came from the fact that we had made it and before long he was asking for more. "Big one" he asked. "Make big one please". So I promised that we would search for a really big piece of paper in the morning and make the biggest die we possibly could.

I did wonder what he gained from this experience. A two year old can do little in the construction process, but the fascination was proof enough to me that it was a worth while activity.
These are my conclusions:

• we worked and talked together
• he saw how one thing can form entirely shapes
• he watched me use scissors correctly
• he saw me measure accurately to make a precise shape
• maybe his mind was thinking about other things which might be possible
• maybe he was wondering if we could make a bus in the same way

We enjoyed our evening activity and I was looking forward to building a really big cube with him. Perhaps there is a way to make a bus, with wipers and doors and all that. Maybe we can recreate Waterfall by Escher...