MGT Manipulatives with my Little Goose

This was a math lesson for my older two boys.  They were to spin a number and put that many sticks in the play-doh.  Adam always wants to be involved.  He is only 17 months old but he wants to eat what Mommy eats and play what brothers play. 

So I gave him some sticks and some play-doh and he had so much fun. These sticks are super cool, they were included in our Mother Goose Time box this month.

I left the tray out and the next day he wanted to play with them again. 

This time I left the sticks in the plastic bag and unzipped the bag.  I thought I would add another level of difficulty to the activity. You can see his little face as he is trying to get them out of the bag. 

For some reason Adam just loves these sticks.  He kept wanting to play with them so I came up with yet another way for him to do some exploring.  I really can't limit these pictures down because they are so adorable and they almost read like a comic book.

He can barely see over the box.  I gave him a wipes container and a tray full of sticks.  

 Just learning how to open the container.

 He put a stick in and really wanted to figure out how to get it out. 

 He learned how to open the full lid. 

 So pleased.

 Now trying his hand at the wipe opening. 

 Found the button.

 Putting a stick in. 

 Now how do I get it out again?

I love to see his little mind at work and his fingers figuring things out.  Of course, the major negative of this activity is that your child will now know his or her way around the wipes container and your wipes will no longer stay where they are supposed to.  Since Adam was already good at removing all the wipes from their container, I figured this sort of play wouldn't hurt.

Instead of putting all the sticks in and then taking them out like I thought he would, he put one in and took one out.  But hey, it was still a great time, it kept him busy and happy and made him feel like he was a part of our "school time".