At almost 19 months, Bryan has become incredibly innovative ways in dealing with daily issues using his problem solving skills. Here are a couple of examples.
A Whole New Game
Bryan has one of those multi-functional toy boxes that facilitates different types of learnings on each side of the box. One of the sides is an opening that allows Bryan to reach in to the center of the box to grab the blocks that he’d insert into the box from one of the sides. But he’s outgrown the box a while ago.
Just recently we bought him a complete set of colorful wooden alphabets to play with because he just LOVES solving puzzles and match shapes of blocks. At first we thought alphabets would be kind of challenging. But within a couple of weeks, he knew exactly where each alphabet goes without any help. And because we always sound out the alphabets when he makes a match, he already knew how to pronounce a few of the alphabets. After a while, the game got pretty boring for him.
So one day he decided to invent his own game with the two toys — he dumps all of alphabets into the toy box. So instead of picking alphabets at will by looking at them, he spiced up the activity by randomly picking out an unknown alphabet and tried to match that specific alphabet he just picked out!
WOW!
Making the Association
Bryan is at the stage where he wants to help himself to everything he eats. And we allow him to make a mess most of the time to help build his self-confidence and fine-motor skills. But one of the challenges has been finding a cup size that he can comfortably hold on to for maximum control.
While having pancakes at a restaurant one time, we noticed the cup used for syrups was perfect size for his tiny palm to comfortably hold on to. So we cleaned and washed the cup and replaced syrups with water. He LOVED the cup. And he kept drinking and asking for refills with it like an alcoholic at a bar. It was really funny to see.
So last night Grace gave him a small glass of milk to drink and experiment with using different types of utensils. At first he was happy with using a straw and different types of spoons. But then he realized one of his toys looks exactly like the syrup container he used at the restaurant. So he went and dug it out and started happily scooping milk out of the mug and drank with it. It was fascinating to see how quickly he made the associations on those objects.