He was ever so funny about dirty hands for ages.
Yes he's a bit like that. I never bother with aprons when we do messy stuff because he stays basically clean and only does the activity 2 mins so it's just not worth it. However, he *will* get very dirty hands for a few mins, he'll squish messy stuff, rub paint all over a tray or paper for several mins and will do hand prints and foot prints on paper happily for a few mins. Then he wants a wash and will rarely return to the activity. He always enthuses about crafts if I suggest something but once we start it's like he doesn't see the point of it so just stops. He does seem to be better with non-messy non-craft activities.
We do do quite a lot of things, I just find it hard to fill an entire day if we don't go out or if we can't stay out all morning, plus lunch, plus some of the afternoon up to nap time (2pm or 2.30pm). I always run out of ideas.
A couple of days ago he did several dot to dot pictures, he sees the numbers so fast but doesn't take the time with his pen to join them very well - that's where he needs to improve his fine motor because he wants to do it but can't yet. He also spelled his name correctly for the first time, speaking the letters, so I quickly grabbed a tub of letter stickers and told him to find the letters, then once he had them all peeling the backs off (needed some help to start the peeling) and sticking them down in the right order. I turned it into a letter to Granny and we just wrote (hand over hand, he does most of the movement in the right directions, but again can't control the pen enough) "Dear Granny I can spell my name xxx" on the same paper as the stickered name, wrote Granny on the envelope and stuck the stamp on. He was so pleased with himself I suggested we do it again, so did exactly the same thing for Nana. In all it must have taken about 30 mins because we were late starting our BT routine. See, with this activity he must have seen a point to it, many activities he just doesn't see the point.
The next day I combined the dot to dot with spelling his name by writing his name, large letters, in yellow and putting dots around in black, he happily wrote on top of them with a darker pen, then did Mummy, Daddy, Granny and Nana, I was amazed he managed much of it himself with very little or no help hand over hand. So maybe he his motor skills are beginning to catch up with his desire to do things. Again it held his attention a lot longer than just giving him paper and a pot of pens/crayons/chalks. With pens he just takes one lid off, does one mark on the page, says the colour, puts the lid back on, selects another colour, repeat. it is all fine motor skill, esp the lids, but 2 mins later all the colours have been named and used and he is finished. He won't just sit and draw/scribble yk. Before his 2yo development check I started to get concerned that he couldn't draw a circle (wouldn't even scribble in circles or spirals) and one day I asked him very specifically "will you draw a circle"
"no"
"will you draw a zero"
"no"
"will you draw an O"
"no"
"will you draw earth"
"oh yes...earth, saturn, venus, jupiter..." circle after circle and when he ran out of planets he put the pen down and walked away.
Today he posted a ton of play letters in his play post box before I even dragged myself out of bed. Breakfast he always eats with a fork, we've done mono printing (a heap of prep and cleaning for me, some enjoyment from him but not hugely), he made lunch, opening the mayo jar and spooning some out, lid back on, chopping spring onions with spring loaded kitchen duck scissors (kid friendly), mixing with fish, chopped yellow peppers and cucumbers with his dog knife, spread butter onto bread and spread the fish spread on, cut each sandwich in half, shared out the pieces of pepper and cucumber - all fine motor stuff and all interest him. I gave him some tiny potato sticks (not healthy!) with his sandwich so he got a fair amount of fine motor practice picking those up too. He's also dialled Granny's number on the phone to call her for a chat, made a traffic jam of toy cars, and put about 3 DVDs in the machine and turned it on (including opening the boxes releasing the disc and putting them all away too) - lots of fine motor. Just not lots of time taken up! The DVDs took up a fair whack of time though.
I still have this afternoon to fill. It's pouring outside.
