Play Dough

After letting Erik attempt using scissors for the first time while we were at Explora, I realized that we need to do more work on his fine motor skills/strength. One of the BEST ways to do this is to play with play dough. We made up a batch of dough (and I do mean WE, let your little one help with the whole process!) and pulled out some toys and I let him go to town with it. He poked it and squeezed it and cut it with different toys/cookie cutters. He rolled it between his hands and made lots of little "snakes". He played and played until it was time to put it away and eat lunch, and has loved it just as much each time I've pulled it out since then too. 

 As you can see, this was around Christmas time and he was a bit obsessed with the baby Jesus from his nativity scene. It was his idea to bring baby Jesus over for his play dough ginger bread man to "worship". Seriously, this was entirely his own idea. We haven't done anything like this before, but he just really thought that the Christ-child deserved a little gingerbread man love. The Baby got lots of gooey play dough kisses before the day was over, but don't worry, Erik made sure Mary was nearby to closely supervise the whole thing.