Thoughts on play

Is it November already? Oh my how October seems to have come and went! Can you imagine that there are only two more months to the year? Lately my thoughts have been turning to activities that Liam and I can do together.  Especially in the kitchen.  Not only to help him learn, but to also control the type of mess work he has going on in the kitchen while I am cooking or baking.  One morning, I was making these muffins again (I think I've made them every week since I discovered them!) and this time I was going to add mashed banana.  So I had Liam mash the bananas for me.  We had a blast, him and I - mashing bananas. Who knew that mashing fruit into a pulp could be so therapeutic! It's a stress reliever I tell you.  

After we finished mashing, I washed off the masher and gave it to him so that I could get the muffins mixed and into the oven. When I looked up from my work, you know what I found him doing?  You guessed it... 

Mashing his little crochet fruit in a mixing bowl in his play area.  He had just applied what we had done in the kitchen to his play.  I have read that children imitate real life in their play in books, but to see it in real life - amazing! I think I stared at him a bit awestruck for a moment before snapping to my senses and running to get my camera like a good little blogger to shoot pictures of this occurrence.  Please excuse the picture of his back, once I started snapping pictures of his face he got distracted.

You know how he applied a skill from real life to imitate in play? Well, the same went vise versa.  Liam here is spooning one crochet apple from one bowl to the other.  We had never introduced a spoon during meal times, but lately he has been reaching for one.  This morning I gave it to him and was blown away as he used his spoon to pick up food and put it into his mouth.  Food. Spoon. Mouth.  All in that order. Mind blowing! He taught himself how to use a spoon by playing with small objects and a spoon.  Looking back, I do recall him spooning those little crochet apples into his mouth and later chasing him to pry it out, but it never really amazed me until he did it with real food during breakfast.

A child's play... so much learning about the world and their part in it takes place through play.  That realization really has me contemplating the meaningful work that I can give him and the play stations that I create for him.

I know this stuff must be old news to veteran parents like yourself but to a newbie like me, I am learning so much.  And it is so amazing to see and such a blessing to be a part of it all with him.

I added a dish rag to his kitchen toys.  I've been thinking about teaching him how to dry his own dish lately.  I thought I would start off with play drying. Or perhaps real life drying.  Apparently it doesn't matter because there is such a wonderful overlap!

Cheers everyone!