Skip to main content

Everyday objects

In addition to his new clapping trick, Luke has started trying to write. He'll grab anything shaped remotely like a pencil or crayon, put one end on the table (or floor, or roundhouse, or paper if I'm lucky) and scribble madly. The look on his face is priceless: a mix between intense joy and concentration. Luckily for me, Eleanor has started bringing him paper when he gets hold of a crayon. I suppose it is easier than making sure your crayons stay off the floor...

This gets added to his sets of "grown-up" type activities. He's figured out that you eat with a spoon, so when he finds a spoon, he tries to eat with it. He knows that when someone has a cup, you put it up to your mouth. When the cup is empty he tips it back. When the cup is full, I am usually holding on to it. He will put his lips to the rim and suck madly, thinking "I know Mama likes this, although I don't know why. If I keep trying, I'll figure it out, I know!" Then he tries to grab the water in the cup.

I love how babies interact with books. Of course I mean board books: babies' interactions with paper books usually involves some tearing or folding. Luke will pick up a book, look at it seriously, work hard to turn the pages. He looks for all the world like he's reading it. Then slowly, not breaking the illusion, he brings the book up to his face...and starts eating it. The illusion is shattered, and Mama starts laughing, so Luke looks up from his chewing and smiles.

Comments

Anonymous said…
You might like this page with Judy DeLoache's research on how young children interact with picture books (about half way down): http://www.faculty.virginia.edu/childstudycenter/researchprojects.html

Even better is her research on scale errors that kids make (trying to grab the moon, trying to ride in tiny cars) - she has videos on this.

FNDP
mathmom said…
Hi Friendly Neighborhood Developmental Psychologist!

Wow, that is neat. The videos were funny! I see why people want to study developmental psychology, especially with babies and toddlers. Their ideas about the world are so different from adult ideas, and by the time we are adults, we have mostly forgotten what our infant ideas were.

Popular posts from this blog

A day at the fair

Yesterday afternoon the whole family went to the NC state fair. We had a good enough time that I think we are going back next year, although perhaps we will leave Luke at home with a sitter. We went right after Eleanor's school. Michael picked up Eleanor, I drove Luke and Amanda. Through an amazing bit of timing, we met in the parking lot and walked to the fair together, about a 10 minute walk (not bad at all, really). I had meant to get to the fair much earlier and see the parts that Eleanor and Michael claimed not to be interested in (the animals and crafts, mostly) but I was running a little late. Our area has been in a serious drought for the past few months, so I am not complaining that it rained (hard) on us as we were getting to the gate. But it does seem a bit hard that we planned to go to the fair on the one day in the past 3 months that we had a rainstorm. Fortunately, the rain was scattered, and the clouds soon moved off to water another area. We took the opportun...

Books I like: magic/science fiction

I read a lot of science fiction and fantasy when I was younger, so I was surprised when I was thinking about this list at how few books were on it. The other thing that is interesting is how many books I just remember a few details from, but not anything useful like a title or author. Half Magic and the whole series, by Edward Eager: My favorite is Knight's Castle, although I suspect I would have enjoyed it more if I had ever read Ivanhoe... Mrs. Piggle Wiggle by Betty MacDonald: I'm not sure when it happened, but I now identify with the parents rather than the kids. The Seven Citadels by Geraldine Harris: I came back to the Jr. High library to check this out even after I moved on to the high school. Girl with the Silver Eyes by Wilo Davis Roberts: I always wondered what would happen if I had ESP and other "special" abilities. The OZ books, by L. Frank Baum: I read almost all of these (all the ones I could find in the library, rather). My favorite is Tik - To...

Why you should study the history of math

  Why you should study the history of math In the mid 1300s a fad made its way around Italy. Mathematicians would challenge each other to “mathematical duels”. They would post problems for their opponents to solve, sometimes along with their solutions in coded poetry. The winners would get support and funding from rich patrons, the losers would descend into obscurity. One such contest, between Fiore and Tartaglia, involved a new method for solving the cubic. In order to win, Tartaglia worked day and night to find Fiore’s method---unfortunately, Fiore did not do the same and only knew his own method and no others. (*Recall that the formula for solutions to quadratic equations of the form use the quadratic formula, Giorlamo Cardano---physician, philosopher, astrologer and mathematician---convinced Tartaglia to share his method and promised never to reveal it. Then Cardano figured out a more general method, and wanted to share it, but was blocked by his promises. Fortunately (for Ca...