What the table looked like before we painted it
Having yogurt at my little green table with Horton andElliot the Elephant
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Little green table
This weekend we bought Dylan a little table where he can sit and color and do other fun crafty things. I had the fantabulous idea of painting it green to match his room, so Cristiano and I stayed up late Saturday night doing that out on the balcony. I think it turned out pretty well. That's the excitement around here. Last week, I went to a three-hour seminar for parents at Dylan's play group on "How to Play With Your Toddler." Aside from the part where they had the parents roll around in soil on the ground to get in touch with our "inner children," it was actually really interesting. I got a lot of great ideas and even picked up some good discipline tips from the "dottoresse" - all of the teachers were early education specialists and had long titles and we had to call them "dottoressa." Even though we were all on the ground rolling in soil or pizza dough and discussing our "feelings" about it. My feelings were as follows: soil = dirty/manure-scented and pizza dough = sticky. All in the name of being a better mamma! Incidentally, the dottoresse HATE plastic and went on and on and on about how plastic to the touch doesn't "communicate" anything to a child and toys should never be in plastic. They believe that kids should even use silverware, eat on ceramic and drink from glass. Children, they said, are actually "miniature physicists" and if they only have access to plastic, they will not be able to "conduct their experiments." Weird - but interesting, no? I have been letting our own little physicist drink from glass and so far he hasn't experimented by smashing it against the wall - or worse - his face. Either he is still in the data gathering phase or he has no desire to experiment! Anyway, my first fantastic inspiration from the seminar meant we had lentils all over the house for about a week, but the point was to let Dylan go nuts (I was not allowed to tell him "no" or "that's not the way we play with that") with objects commonly found in the home. I think I'll stick with wooden spoons and a pan next time...
What the table looked like before we painted it
Having yogurt at my little green table with Horton and
Elliot the Elephant
What the table looked like before we painted itHaving yogurt at my little green table with Horton andElliot the Elephant
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3 comments:
I'll bet those theories are pretty radical for some of le mamme here! My sister is a great fan of all the above mentioned and I can tell you that when they visited her 2 year old son broke a few of our mugs. He was used to carpeted floors and not tiles that smash everything to bits. In practice you need to supervise kids v closely with non plastic eating equipment! Vanessa
PS is that a plastic spoon i see Dylan using to eat his yoghurt?? ha ha
Yes, all of Dylan's tableware is plastic because I never considered giving him anything else. But the "dottoresse" said that what they've seen in the preschools is that if kids only have plastic, they will not respect it and send it flying through the air. Since they've begun using glass and ceramic, the kids ("mini physicists," I mean) feel the weight and importance of it and don't throw it. The preschools get all of their ceramic plates, bowls and mugs at IKEA now and they have since broken only one thing.
Well S has never thrown any tableware item and most of her stuff is plastic. i save her 'good' china stuff for when we have guests, although i often give her normal (ie china) plates like us now as i can't be bothered getting plastic ones out.
I think my nephew broke 3 things while he was here for 3 weeks (and he was used to using china all the time). Made me think that it's a good option when you are:
a. Not living in a house with ceramic tiled floors
b. monitor the child closely and don't let them walk carrying plates/ mugs etc.
Anyway, i am pleased they are teaching the Milanese parents these things. Now if it would just trickle down to Sicily, where i don't think i have ever seen a child under the age of 3 actually ALLOWED to feed themselves let alone touch plates, utensils etc. Did they have anything to say about 6 year olds that still use babybottles (which seems to be the norm here too!!!)? V
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