Water Table

I bought the sand-and-water table about six months ago and so far, I have to say that it's the best toy that I've invested in. Although our sand-and-water table has not met sand before (hence it's called water table in our home), it's been played lots and lots of times with water, ice, water beads and soapy water. And the added paraphernalia to the mentioned media is just endless! In fact, the little girl uses it for her play at least once a week, unlike some toys that have not seen daylight after being played for only a week.

Recently, we've had two water play which I absolutely loved with the water table. For the first one, I had wanted her to do some colour-mixing with coloured water. I had seen some activities with coloured water in a group at Facebook and I thought of trying it out. So I threw some transparent containers, a scoop and some water birds into the water table, with blue and yellow coloured water, for her to explore. 

The initial set-up of the water table

The little girl realised that something was not right

I wondered what she was going to do

She wanted the penguins to "hold hands"!

Then she grouped the ibis and flamingo together

At this point, I realised that the activity wasn't going in the intended direction but I was okay with that. I let her continue on her own to see where it was going. She was the least bit interested in any scooping, transferring or mixing. After a while, she took all the penguins out of the water, lined them up and asked for some fish. Immediately, I knew where it was heading. She wanted to feed the penguins! Obviously she was re-enacting our penguin-feeding at the Bird Park a few weeks ago. She even asked for a glove, as I had worn one while feeding the penguins, but unfortunately we didn't have one at home which was small enough for her.

Queue up for some fish, penguins!

A few days later, we did another activity at the water table. The little girl loves to stand on the stool in the kitchen and watch me as I do this and that, asking me once in a while if she could help. So I thought - why not let her have her own "sink" of dishes to wash? She could have fun with soapy water, be a little like Mummy, and help me with some housework all at the same time!

Her own dishes to wash

Grab a plate

Soak the sponge

Scrub away!

And when you are done, always wash your hands

I thought she had so much fun washing the dishes that she would want to do it again but when I asked her the day after, she didn't want to. I guess she realised that real housework isn't half as fun as it look. In fact, it is actually tiring. Haha!!!

Beans Play

I am so in love with our current play set-up that I've decided to dedicate this entry to it. I had bought a set of Geometric Solids about a month or two ago but on their own, the little girl had shown little interest in them. So when inspiration came, I decided to throw some beans, geometric solids and a detergent scoop in a glass casserole, put them on the light box, and let her do the rest. When she woke up and saw the set-up, only hunger stopped her from playing, but play resumed after breakfast.

Beans play before breakfast

Each geometric solid has one removable face, which is the base for many of them and the removable face also has a little circular opening which you can plug. So when she realised that the solids can be filled, she immediately went on with the scooping of the beans to fill the containers.

Totally absorbed with the activity

After a while, she decided that it was also fun to pick the beans with her fingers and drop them through the little opening one by one. That was some good fine motor skills practice that she had and I admired her concentration as she picked and dropped the beans one at a time. Wouldn't be faster to just use the scoop? But that's just me, thinking with my adult, always-trying-to-accomplish-things-quickly mind. Children have a totally different agenda.

Picking and dropping the beans one at a time

Once the geometric solids were filled, or partially filled, she wanted to shake them as rattles. I would have done the same! I really enjoyed the plink plonk of the beans as they dropped on the glass, plastic and wooden surfaces, and I bet she enjoyed it too. The only problem is, the removable face and plastic plug for the little opening come off pretty easily, but nothing some Scotch tape couldn't fix. Once taped, she had her bean rattles to make some music.

The removable face and little opening for the cube

Left to her own devices, she went on to transferring the beans from one filled solid to another. Since their volumes are not the same, I jumped at the opportunity to talk about volume, space, more than and less than. After all, these fillable, see-through solids are meant for students to explore the properties of volume. I tried to use the correct names for the solids too, like sphere, cube and cone, but she was happy to call them square, circle and triangle instead.

Beans play resumed after breakfast

So that was in the morning, but at night, she turned on the light table and continued playing with her papa. Of course her papa was intrigued with the geometric solids too and did his own exploration. There's a child in all of us, isn't it? And I was glad I didn't clear the set-up that night. The next day, she took out the solids that I had kept in their box, turned on the light box, took her friend Hello Kitty with her, and resumed playing.

More scooping the next day

She remembered what I had done with the tape so after filling them with beans, she asked for the tape and scissors and asked me to tape them. And because the previous night she had seen her papa looking at the instruction manual to look at suggested activities, names of the solids and formulas, she did the same too. Sometimes she really imitates us to a T.

Learning the formulas?

For patiently and quietly sitting beside her, Hello Kitty was rewarded with her own cubic bean rattle. How lucky! She held it onto Hello Kitty's hand and shook it to rattle the beans. Hmmm... she definitely needs a real playmate at home. 

Hello Kitty and her cubic beans rattle

It's been two days of beans play and it doesn't look like she's tired of it yet. The last time she played with the same set-up for days was when I threw in some plastic beads and water, with some scoops and transparent containers and bottles, at her water table. She spent days scooping, filling and transferring. 

As a future activity, I am planning to throw the geometric solids with some water, plastic beads and scoops at her water table. The transparency of the solids allows her to see the beads swirling around before they settle down. And I would use the opportunity to tell her that water has no definite shape and takes the shape of its container. Updates to come after I have done that activity!

I had wanted to link this post to the the site on Amazon where I had bought the Geometric Solids, but it's currently not available. I had just seen them listed on Amazon yesterday! Oh well, there are others which are similar such as Power Solids which are cheaper but they don't come with plugs for the openings. The other one is Relational Geosolids which have the same function as Geometric Solids but it's not multi-coloured. And if you are getting these as a teaching aid in school, then the Giant Geosolids would suit the purpose.

Update:
As of 30th Sep, the Geometric Solids are on sale at Amazon again!

Birthday Bear

While I was preparing breakfast this morning, the little girl came to me asking for her party hats. I thought it was for the usual clapping and jumping while singing the birthday song. I don't know if I had mentioned it before but she's in a birthday song craze now. In fact, not just the song, but the whole blowing candles and cutting cake thing.

After I had gotten the party hats, I realised that it wasn't for her but it was for Mama Bear, one of her favourite bears. Mama Bear was propped on her kitchen top and she had taken out her cake and candles from her kitchen cabinet. And with the party hats on Mama Bear and her, and candles in place, she started clapping and jumping while singing the birthday song for Mama Bear.

Putting the candles in place

Mama Bear was ready for her party

After singing, she promptly removed the party hats and the candles from the cake. I watched quietly and wondered what she would do next. She looked for her plastic knife and started cutting the cake. Then it was time to eat the cake for Mama Bear and her, complete with, "Mmmm, nice!"

What are you doing there?

Oh, cutting the cake for Mama Bear!

I thought she was done after that but she wasn't. She took the party hats and candles again, and repeated the whole process a few more times till breakfast was ready and I had to stop her play. Such a delight to watch her play and especially so since the role-playing was totally initiated by her. 

I've read a dozen times before, if not more, how child-directed, independent play is the best kind of play and I can't agree more. Firstly, it gives the care-giver some much-needed time and space to do whatever that is necessary such as food preparation and housework. Secondly, it gives the child the opportunity to explore and do whatever he/she fancies without adult interruption and direction. 

In an ideal world, I wish that I would do very little teaching to my little girl and let her learn on her own. I constantly battle my own will not to teach and show her how things are done mostly because I know that is not the most ideal. And most times when I show her how something is done, I end up doing the playing as she will ask me to do it again and again. So who's the one playing then?

For now, let me live in my own make-believe world, where play is all that matters for the little girl, before reality sets in.