Taking a Clue from the Children

Last Monday, I’d planned on reading the book, The Jacket I Wear in the Snow by Shirley Neitzel. It’s a fun, repetitive book with some rebus pictures that allow the children to read along. I’d planned on using it for sequencing and tying it in with our self-help/dressing skills when we go outside everyday. I have some really cute doll snow clothes that go perfectly with the book, so I set up a clothesline, thinking we’d get a little fine motor work in with the clothespins.

The children’s reactions were funny. Many just stared at the clothesline. One laughed. A couple decided it was good for going under, again and again and again. When I explained that it was a clothesline, one child asked why it was closed.

It was soon obvious that while the many of the children could remove the clothing from the line by yanking them off, most didn’t know how to get them back ON the line. Based on my observations, I knew we need to take the skill back a step. Putting clothes on a line require lining up the line AND the fabric with one hand, and clipping with the other. And easier task would be to attach a clothespin to one object, preferably solid. I brought out large popsicle sticks and more pins.

Some children didn’t know which end of the pin to pinch, so I marked one end.

When I attended the NAECY Conference in Atlanta this November, one concern mentioned was that children’s fine motor strength is getting weaker. We need to address this, and give our children plenty of opportunities to build their hand strength! One child came up with his own way to use clothespins!

Then of course, some children decided to turn me into a hedgehog!