Symmetry and Patterns

The other day I let Lila skip her nap and stay up with Savannah. Poor Adeline was sick and begging for her much needed nap. Savannah and Lila had the Play-Doh out and began demonstrating some interesting concepts. Savannah started out with patterns galore and finished off with a pattern cake stacked high. She eventually put together a presentation with symmetry as well. The girl really loves patterns!

 

I decided to see if Lila could recognize and complete a simple pattern. I didn't think she would be successful and don't know at what age simple patterns emerge. I was pleased to see her extend my simple Play-Doh ball pattern of red-purple-red-purple. She did it all on her own.

She wasn't too interested in repeating different patterns and moved on to cutting out a gingerbread man which she declared was Baby Jesus. Soon Baby Jesus had a binki and a Bunny.


Guess who was cutting Baby Jesus in half with a knife when I walked into the room a few minutes later?

Coloring

One of Adeline's many challenges is coloring.  It is also something that goes unnoticed by the untrained eye but will most likely lead to significant hurdles on down the road.  My last conference with her IU teachers concluded that it was too early to "work" on coloring.  I was encouraged to develop strength in her hands while also making her use two hands together.  Most children automatically hold their paper with one hand while the other is coloring but Adeline has to be reminded.  Things that help strengthen her grasp are activities that include tong-like tools and small objects.  We also rip paper, crinkle, paper and string various objects.  Working on coloring has not been on my radar since I have been focused on laying the foundation of a pencil grasp.

I am sure you can imagine my surprise when a couple of coloring pages ended up in her back pack (from her mainstream preschool).  They had scribbles with more than one color.  In the past, Adeline has HATED coloring.  It has been hard and unsuccessful.  Recently, I have seen some coloring come from her IU classroom too.  I am working on scheduling a conference to talk about this transition. 

The other night I had some one on one time with girls and I decided to try coloring with Miss Belle.  I didn't use hand over hand but talked about what colors we should use and where in on the coloring page they should go.  I also continually pointed to white space and asked Adeline to color it.   I had her color fast and slow, both of which she could do.  Her crayon worked its way out of her grasp numerous times but she kept going.  She clearly has more hand and finger strength because she can apply enough pressure to make solid marks.  It is a far cry from what seemed like a "greased-up, falling from her fingers, no pressure, crayon grasp" from a few months back.

Here is her picture of Big Bird.  It is her first complete coloring and I am more than thrilled.   The yellow is pretty hard to see but it is there!!

I also included a picture that Lila Grace did that same evening so that I can look back and track her progress as well.  She is coloring quite well when she is reminded to go slow and is working on drawing people and writing her name.