Poke and press
For the very first time, Vai got his hands on simple arts stuff today.
Well okay, poking a lump of clay with coloured matchsticks may not really count as arts and crafts, but hey I’m honestly pretty happy that this 13-month old guy didn’t end up munching them up at all.
I do realise that so far his gross motor skills are developing quite well. I guess it sort of happened naturally for a boy like him.
And so I thought, while accompanying Anya (as she’s finishing up her dinner), it’d be nice to introduce something that requires him to exercise his fine motor skills.
AND, I was frankly surprised to see how ‘engaged’ he was. As his stubby fingers held the coloured matchstick, he poked and observed the hole he just made on the clay. He too held the clay in his hands, pressed and gently squashed it, observing its changing shape.
It was such a new experience for him.
I sat and supervised him throughout the ten-minutes-or-so session (I obviously didn’t want the matchsticks to end up in between his teeth or up his nose or something!)
Oh, btw he did try to bring a matchstick to his mouth. But when I told him not to do it as it’s not supposed to go into his mouth, he (again, surprisingly) obeyed and continued on with the clay play.
It was weird. Well you know, a happy kind of weird feeling.
(And now I know how Vai is – apparently – also into doing things other than climbing, jumping, throwing and walking! Whoopee!)
