A few weeks ago, I talked about snowflakes. I think Nick’s grandparents liked that idea because this pattern block set showed up for a Christmas present.
Yesterday, Nick woke up from his nap before Sally and wanted to do a craft. To him that means he wants to play with something at the kitchen table. I didn’t have a good plan and I didn’t really want to do a project that involved glue, scissors and a mess. Enter the pattern block gift.
This is a classic Melissa and Doug toy. It’s exactly what you would expect. It was a high quality box with nice wood pieces in kid friendly colors. The big downfall (as with most of their toys) is there isn’t a lid. Once you know this and find a suitable shoe box or something to use, it’s all good.
Sorting:
Concentrating:
Pondering:
Working on dexterity to pick up the small pieces:
Happy with his work:
I liked these pattern blocks because we could talk about colors and shapes. He got to practice sorting in the trays that I picked up from the after Christmas sale. There were also enough blocks that he could do several patterns before he had to reuse some of the blocks. These aren’t puzzles where the pieces fit into a recessed board. If he wasn’t careful, the whole design would move. It was good practice for him. He even decided to do a couple of them “double decker” where he stacked the pattern on the same board two high. I loved this activity and look forward to using it more with Nick. Sally will be able to try it soon as well.
I recently cleaned out a bookcase in our den to house our craft projects. It’s not quite organized yet, but I’m looking forward to having many things available at my disposal to keep the kids busy and learning during the cold, dark, winter that is upon us.