#blogjune 2013 Day 17: In which I sacrifice my potato ricer on the altar of learning

In an attempt to make learning some spelling words more "kinesthetic" and "visual-spacial" for Mr9 I made play dough.  It's been a while since I made this for the kids.  In fact, in a fit of declutter fever I'd moved on a bunch of baby toys including the play dough tools to Miss6's old day care. 

My theory was that by forming the words with something tactile and manipulative it may help Mr9's brain to store the information in a way useful to him.  I have no idea if this is good pedagogy but he seemed to enjoy it. I remember a colleague of mine telling me about her son who has microcephaly and how she spent a lot of time making him feel textures and saying words about them to help him learn to associate the word with the sensation. Now obviously Mr9 is not severely disabled with microcephaly but I have always remembered my colleague's devotion and conviction that it was helpful as a learning tool.

Having discovered I had given away the "worm maker" to daycare, Mr9 was indignantly upset so in order to allow him the joy of creating words out of worms, I let him use my potato ricer. It works a treat actually and fortunately the play dough is a good recipe and is easily cleaned off while soft.

Naturally Miss6 was soon in on the action, making pizza and cookies and taniwha. Mint green, peppermint scented taniwha... the best kind. :-D