Sometimes, because Belle is 2, she loses interest before I finish the recipe. Given free-ish rein in the kitchen, here’s what she ends up doing.
Taking all the spoons (and forks and knives) out of the drawer.
Belle has long had access to that drawer to set her place at the table, and it’s a fairly harmless activity. It’s interesting for me to observe that she orients the utensils in the same direction and that the drawer gets emptied in an organized fashion.
I need to keep an eye on what comes out of the drawer – there are scissors stashed in the back, for instance – but for the most part Belle gives herself sorting practice. With any highly repetitive activity like this, it’s easy to incorporate language: I model “fork, fork, fork, fork, fork” or ask “what is that?” to elicit “spoon” every time she picks one up.
As an extension activity, I can place one fork, one knife, and one spoon back in the drawer and ask her to sort the utensils back home. I could also gather all the spoons (or forks) and ask her to sort big from small to work on comparative sizes.
Skills worked on:
See other ways to occupy:
Baking with Belle 