As always, necessity — or desperation, in my case — is the mother of invention.
Evening times are usually busy times at home. This will be the point where Noey becomes a bundle of restless energy, and it would unfortunately coincide with my need to supervise dinner prep and feed Nomi her porridge dinner.
The other day, when he started bugging me to play after I had just gotten Nomi seated down in her highchair, I had a brain wave. I told him that we were going to play “Restaurant”. He was to be a waiter and I was to be a diner at his restaurant. His job was to recommend me food, write down my order on a piece of paper, then serve up the dish. He was amused and readily agreed to this new game.
I started out trying to spell the food items for him to write down, but quickly decided that it would be easier for me (and would take longer for him) if I got him to copy the words off his wall chart/books.
And after he was done with all the writing, I kept him busy rummaging through his toy drawers for the matching food items for me.
It was, altogether, at least 15 mins of peace for me. Just about enough for Nomi to finish her dinner. Not bad, I say. It’s a bonus that I can classify this as a “learning activity” for Noey!
(Considering that I have never taught him to form his letters, I was pleasantly surprised that he could write legibly on his own. He says he’s done some letter writing in school so maybe that’s where he’s learnt to write?)
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