Since Rowan started going to school I have been planning several different activities for us to do in the afternoons when he gets home. I have been gathering materials here and there. Sometimes items that are meant to be tossed in the recycling bin get rediscovered and re-imagined. You will be amazed at just how many different uses one object can have when you put your mind to it.

When Rowan walked in this afternoon he started going through the drawer that has all my play/work materials in it. He found three hand-made wooden bowls and inspected them for a while. Now I know how things go with toddlers. It seems the first use they find for an object is usually the only use they will find for it for a long time. So before these bowls turned into really cute little hats or perhaps stacking objects I decided to show him what I intended for them.

They are sorting bowls. The idea is to gather many objects over time, natural and human-made, to be sorted into the bowls by various criteria. Today we sorted some glazed clay rocks by colour.

It might seem like such a simple task, but Rowan really gets a kick out of being able to complete it. Just look at the concentration on his face.

His favourite part however is pouring them back into collecting bowl. He then thought that it was time to do some pouring from one bowl to the next. I asked him to do some sorting one more time and he did. After that he could pour as much as he wanted.

When the sorting activity was all tidied away Rowan found the cardboard tubes that I have been saving, so once again I seized the moment to help him make a rhythm shaker using tubes, dried beans and painter's tape.

I am so glad that we have reached the point where he and I can work together on projects and tasks. There are so many wonderful projects and activities that we can do and I am very excited about them.

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