Sticker Groups

About a month ago, the little girl started peeling and pasting stickers on her own. I thought that that was itself a developmental milestone that she had achieved. The pink, blue and purple stickers were pasted on randomly and I didn't think anything about it. I was just glad that she could do it independently and was totally absorbed at it.

Peeling and pasting stickers

Her first sticker craft

And then about two weeks later, I wanted to occupy her with some sticker activity again since she loved it the first two occasions with the stars. I took out a marine sticker sheet with sharks, angelfish, turtles, starfish and whales on it for her to paste around the dolphin she had painted.

At first, I noticed a few whales that were clustered together and a few starfish on the other side of the paper. I asked her why she did not want to spread them around the paper. But she continued at it and was totally absorbed so I let her be while I continued with some cutting for her craft. Then after a while, when I realised what she was doing, I was so so glad that I had not stopped her. She was grouping the animals into groups around the dolphin with very clear clusters for each group. Subhanallah! 

Clusters of marine animals around the dolphin

Then a week later I tried it again. My husband had painstakingly cut the tarantula which the little girl had stamped with her animal stamps. I thought since I have bugs stickers, I could let her paste the stickers again. I wondered if it was just a fluke or if she would group the stickers again. But right from the get go, and I observed her this time round, it was clear what her goal was. The butterflies, dragonflies, spiders and other bugs were clearly grouped around the spider in clear clusters.

Clusters of bugs around the tarantula

Before all these, I had in the past tried to do some grouping of objects with her according to colours or types which she was never too keen. And I didn't want to push it when she didn't show interest and so I left it at that. But this discovery with her sticker groups tells me something very profound - that a child will do something when he/she is ready. It's not that I don't already know that or have not read that before but I need to be reminded and the little girl provides me with constant reminders.

Thank you Allah for the reminders. I pray that He keeps me steadfast in my upbringing of the little girl based on my beliefs and principles and that I don't buy into the hype or "norm" of pushing the little girl beyond what is developmentally appropriate for her.