While shopping with Daddy Scott at ToysRus, we decided to buy Le Xin a play dough set. I've always wanted to make no cook playdough with her which will happen soon but first up let's try out the commericial playdough manufactured by Playdoh, it's good as ever except for the smell. By the way, there's another cheaper alternative ---> the ones sold at Daiso, which I bought as well, odourless but a little too oily!
When Daddy Scott took the playdough bag out and placed it on the ground, Le Xin was really excited to find out what's in the bag.
So which colour should we use first? asked Daddy Scott and Le Xin chose green to begin with :)
Le Xin was observing how the dough takes the shape of the container. We asked her to feel the texture and smell it too!
Daddy Scott demonstrated how he could the change the shape of the dough by flattening it. Look at Le Xin's face.......she was amazed!
Le Xin played with the green dough for a while and lost interest in it. She looked up at Daddy and said open as she held a bottle of purple dough in her hand.
Hey wait, what about forming a shape with a cutter asked Daddy Scott? I think he was trying to redirect Le Xin because he felt that she hasn't really explore the first piece of dough yet. Le Xin appeared to feel a little disappointed but still observe how Daddy cut the dough with the cutter.
Daddy Scott's excitement has paid off... Le Xin began to show interest in the green dough once again. While Daddy was cutting the dough, she said I want see!
Le Xin placed a small piece of dough into a blue squeezy like equipment and tried to press it, however she appeared to face difficulty in pressing it so she seeked help from Daddy Scott.
Here's Daddy Scott explaining to Le Xin how to use the equipment. I love this photo very much, being a part of Le Xin's play meant so much to her.....I truly believe in it!
When she saw that her dough was being "squashed out" from the equipment, she laughed loudly and I guess she thought it was really hilarious!
Le Xin decided to take her first step in trying the equipment on her own, she really tried to use all the strength that she has got and in the end.......
She succeeded of course hooray! Just look at how happy she was, that smile of hers which I will never forget :)
Then she went on to explore the scissor in her playdough kit. I could tell that she was quite familiar with the use of scissor by then, since she was often involved in cutting lots of different materials in her mini atelier at home. She cut the dough into smaller pieces and dropped them into the bottle.
Daddy Scott rolled the dough a little longer and Le Xin obviously had fun cutting it off as Daddy held on to it.
Then she went on to try cutting off the dough from the equipment! Wow it looked as if she was all ready to make some yummy noodles together with her Daddy!!!
Time for pack up, Le Xin helped to put all the dough back into the bottle, kept the playdough cutters, roller and equipment into her playdough bag. Then Mummy tried and asked her Le Xin could you kindly keep your playdough bag into the second shelf? She nodded her head, held on to her bag and proceed to keep the bag. Nothing else a satisfied Mummy can ask for...... just two big thumbs up for having such a lovable child as my daughter hahahaha!!!!
Lots of praise can do wonders to a child seriously! Good keeping said Mummy :)
Notice how I just observe as Daddy Scott played with Le Xin....it's tempting to step in....but I chose to take a passive role that day :) Thanks Dearbie....lots of love muackz!
I believe the joy for learning always start off with doing little things that makes a child happy at home....Try playdough today! Children love it and it really helps to refine their motor skills too :)
Firstly I want to congratulate both the father n mother for the great job they are doing to support the play n development of the child.
ReplyDeleteNotice how many skills were being imparted to the child that day and the whole body was involved in the play:
The observation, the smells, the feeling of dough, the fine motor skills in cutting or pressing dough.
The life skills learnt, the maths skills of space and ordinal nos e.g. put the playdough on second shelf etc
Play can be further extended by making dough with equal amounts of plain flour n corn flour, with essence n colour. The corn flour gives it a non stick effect.
U could also use a stick to etch figures in the dough.
Baking dough in a toaster, or leaving it in the sun and obsrving the results are science skills that can be incorporated.
Yet another extension is using different flours e.g rice flour n corn meal flour to see difference in colour n textures of both can be done.
I really enjoy the blog and will be a faithful follower. How i wish i could turn the clock back n teach these skills to my children.
Rekha
Dear Rekha thanks!......Your comments meant so much to me and it's really motivational :)In fact, you are the first friend who takes the effort to leave such a sweet comment on my blog! Thank you! I really appreciate it!
ReplyDeleteYes I believe you certainly can't turn back time to provide these learning experiences for your children now but remember you are still in the Early Childhood Education field! Thus you can still make an impact/ or a difference!
Always be the voice of the children.......speak up for them whenever you need to.......do fun stuff with them before it's too late.....
Your comments have displayed your understanding towards the value of dough play! Thumbs up! I hope my blog will become an inspiration in your work at Lutheran as well! Always be a fun teacher because the children are WORTH IT!
Best Wishes!
Linda