LEARNING OPPOSITES: HOT-COLD /DRY-WET

This morning Noarai wanted to start our learning time with this activity. She went to the kitchen and brought me the cups we usually use for it. As it is one of her favorite activity I’m going to share it with you.

I started it when she was 11 months, she just loved water and we were in summer time so it was a nice activity together. I used two identical small cups that only can hold her fist. I filled one with cold water and the other with warm water, they looked the same. Before anything I put a towel on the floor and sat Noarai on it, then I put another towel on Noarai’s legs and quickly put the cups between her legs. I left her investigate, it’s quite funny her reactions she stayed lots of time in the cold water with all her fist and just felt for a second the hot water with the tips of her fingers and she kept saying the sign of hot a little bit scary at it. This morning she had an interesting idea, she began to grab the water from the cold tin and pass it to the hot one and it was a really good solution to solve her problem with the hot water.

Remember to say lots of times hot and cold. It’s nice if they can’t speak yet to show them the sign: for hot you brush your middle finger out of your mouth as if you were saying that your mouth is hot, and for cold you just shake both arms as if you were freezing. When she started signing to us about hot and cold she used to switch the concepts but it’s the beginning because they are starting to feel a new sensation and they express that to you.

When the attention of this activity finishes (be careful because it’s the moment to pour the water every way) I introduce the socks. I give her the dry sock and together we sink it in the cup and get it wet, with the wet sock in one hand I give her the dry one on the other hand so that she can feel the difference. And as she always do, the dry sock becomes wet in a matter of seconds with a big laugh. Then I say “look at your hands, they are wet let’s get them dry with the towel” Don’t forget to repeat dry and wet lots of times. One day she tried to get the wet socks dried up with the towel and she was just sad because they were still wet. So we left them in the toilet for drying and when she got up of her nap we went to the toilet and saw that the sock was dry and a big smile came up of her mouth.

It’s funny to see the world from their perspective. Every day you learn lots of things of them. As a song of “baby signing time” written by Rachel Coleman says “Every day is special day because you are here with me… your day is plenty of wows!... You keep me young inside” Of course they are tough moments and days but it is a bit dark in a great white paper. I just say thank you God for having this wonderful experience.