Just not ready

Well it wasn't as much as it's been in the past, but I still spent a lot of the day breaking C's focus as he fingered things on the shelf. "No, C. You haven't been shown that, you're not ready yet."

And it's true; sometimes the children just aren't ready. It's silly to try and teach a child how to cut out a flower design if they can't yet hold scissors confidently. Or, as was the case today, sewing a button is pretty much impossible to do independently if you can't thread a needle. C has been fondling the small spools of thread on the shelf since practically day one, so I thought I would show him what they were for so he could have some direction.

The oh so tempting spools of thread

Let's just say there were some mixed results. The activity itself is very simple. There's a needle in a pin cushion and a pair of scissors in the small basket. The child brings the basket to the table, then chooses a single spool of thread from the stand. They measure it to the length of the table, cut it with the scissors and then attempt to thread the eye of the needle.

That's basically the whole activity. Once they successfully thread the needle I introduce them to the fact that we will need to knot the thread and demonstrate how, but this is an extension that I don't expect them to master before going on to the next activity. Tying a knot can be really hard to do.

So even though C has some limited patience when I give a presentation I thought this would be simple enough for him to sit through, then try for himself. Needless to say he was very excited when I finally offered to show him the thread. He had a hard time sitting still while I demonstrated how to measure the thread, I finally had to ask him to put his hands in his lap.

The next problem was with the scissors. Now the scissors I have in this activity really don't cut very well, which compounded the problem. C kept trying to use two hands to operate the scissors, so of course the thread kept sliding away since he couldn't grip it. Also, the spool kept getting knocked off the table and he didn't quite understand that if he simply pulled on the thread instead of picking up the spool it just kept unwinding. So pretty soon we had a large tangle of thread on the floor. I wound it back out for him, trying to explain what he needed to do so that didn't happen. Then I tried to help him cut with one hand so the other could hold the thread. He's been doing a lot of cutting with paper, but I haven't paid close attention to his technique to see if this is how he normally cuts, or if the dull scissors were prompting him to try some different techniques.

Finally we got the thread cut and all the extra back on the spool. That's when C finally buckled down and got busy. He spent nearly 15 mins trying to thread that needle. Each time I peeked over at him he'd have a puzzled look on his face as he stared at the uncooperative thread.

Unfortunately the next time I looked his chair was empty and the work was still on the table. I got C headed back to clean up his work when I noticed that the needle was gone. No clue what he did with it. C kept pointing at the pin cushion when I asked where it was, but I could not feel it anywhere inside and got him looking under the table for the needle. We never did find it, and I had him put the work up on my counter to be 'fixed'.

So I'm a little bit torn. It doesn't seem like he was really ready for the presentation. He didn't have the necessary scissor control, or reliability to leave the needle in the pincushion as requested. However he did spend a good chunk of time focused on threading the needle. Hopefully he'll build up the skills to handle the other steps but until that point I'm going to have to give him a hand. This is one of the skills I hope I gain as I get more experience as a teacher; how to better judge if a child is ready for a presentation. Though with them there's always going to be the element of surprise!