Tonging out of Water

Ty was so excited to use tongs a few months ago and was doing well, but his interest completely dropped around Christmas-time. I would really like him to work on his grasp, so (after several weeks of working up the courage to do water indoors with our floors) I decided to see if he would tong objects out of water.

He loved it! We used pieces from Toppletree, a balancing game he received as a gift from his Aunt and Uncle. He worked on 1:1 correspondence, placing each piece into it's own space in an ice cube tray.

His focus and determination for this activity surprised me. He was really into it!

Tyler seems to really enjoy being responsible for his spills lately. Yay!

When Ty became bored with tonging, I gave him a large slotted spoon to practice scooping the pieces out and into a bowl. This was tricky...too tricky. The pieces moved around a lot in the water and seemed to avoid the spoon at all costs, so he ended up putting them on the spoon by hand and then dumping them in.

I ran and grabbed him Duplos to use instead and he had a bit more luck, but the object size didn't matter as much as I thought; it was still difficult. He wasn't nearly as into it as he was with the tongs. We will repeat the tongs again for sure! 

Linking-up with the fabulous Living Montessori Now and 1+1+1=1