Curriculum of the Day: Tools

Human development amazes me. Without any prodding from us, the girls are constantly pushing themselves to master new skills. It’s as if they’re hard-wired to look at everything as a lesson to learn or an obstacle to overcome. Straws: As soon as they were handed their first plastic top container with a straw stuck through the hole, their main objective in life was to pull it out and stick it back in again, and again, and again. The safety clips on their high chairs: For weeks, Lyra focused on clipping them together by herself. She would stand by the chair and futz with the two ends, until one day—click! And did she rejoice? No, she cried out for us to unclip it so she could do it again. Soon her sister was in the act and the two of them would stand by their high chairs after dinner just pushing those ends together so they would click. Mom or Dad would undo them and the process started all over again.

These last few weeks have been all about forks. There are so many ways to use a fork: There is stabbing the food and putting it straight into your mouth; there is picking up the food with your fingers and sticking it onto the fork, then sticking the fork into your mouth; and there is stabbing food onto the fork, then taking it off with your fingers and putting it into your mouth. At the end of the meal, there is always an opportunity to feed the dogs with the fork. Every week, they seem to get more and more fork accomplished. Lately, they’ve learned that turning the fork with food just resting on top puts it on your lap rather than in your mouth. Stabbing with the wrong end is funny, but not good if you’re still hungry. We’ve attempted to show them eating with forks by example. Sometimes, they take bites off of our forks, but more often than not, they want to do it themselves. They shake their heads and say “nah” if we try to help them. All we really need to do is step back and let human nature work its magic.