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A few months ago we did yet another toddler busy bag swap, and one of the items was a tanagram set with little pictures you’re supposed to try to line up the shapes like. The Bit has never played with it, but she found the shapes the other day when they got knocked off her art supply storage table (things have gotten a little crazy in there lately!) and decided she wanted to play with them after doing a little painting and coloring.
She started to lay out all the shapes and said she was making a flower. I was trying to name the shapes and she pointed them out to me. Trapezoid, parallelogram, rhombus. I had to look up the difference. This girl is smart.
She stayed with it for probably 10 minutes or more, laying it all out just so. She may have been stalling because it was naptime, but still.
The finished “flower” is pretty cool looking.
Today’s lesson: let kids do whatever they want with stuff. Playing with the shapes and colors is a great lesson, even if she’s not making the prescribed patterns yet (which I also know she could do if guided). All play is learning.
