Sunday, July 3, 2011

100 (Attempted) Ways to Entertain a Young Toddler, Day 5: Switcheroo

Oliver loves rubber duckies. He enjoys making them kiss each other and everyone else. He also likes watching Ernie sing his famous song about his rubber duck.

I sat and watched Oliver play with his ducky. He made it climb all over the chairs and made it kiss different objects around the house. Suddenly, I had an idea! I grabbed three bowls from the kitchen cabinet and asked Oliver to bring his duck to me. I stuck the duck under one bowl and set the other two bowls upside-down. Oliver acted like, "What? Give me my duck back!"

I switched two bowls, and Oliver immediately grabbed the bowl that had the duck underneath. I yelled, "Good job!" and that's when Oliver realized it was a game. He looked at me and then stuck the duck back under another bowl. Many times, he didn't watch closely, and he had to flip all three bowls over before finding his duck. Every time he paid attention, he was able to find the duck right away.The game was fun and easy and free. It kept his attention for quite some time, but eventually he decided he wanted to play with the bowls himself. I watched as he stacked them and unstacked them. I finally felt successful in finding an activity that he enjoyed that was easy for me and not too messy. This activity earned an A-!

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