Recently Daisy became really interested and wanted to help whenever Daddy made Mummy a cup of tea. Each time she signs ‘Hot’, says ‘Tea’ and ‘Stir’ as she reaches to help Daddy. So it was an obvious choice to purchase a little tea set for Daisy.
Mummy then enhanced the play by making a simple felt teabag to use in the teapot.
Fine Motor Control
The tea set, along with the teabag, comes out for play on most days. In my previous blog I talked about the physical skills for gross motor control. Playing with the tea set also helps with physical skills but this time it’s about co-ordination and developing the muscles used to hold, grasp and to manipulate items.
Daisy has started to put the teabag into the teapot and put the lid on the teapot. We also join in with some early pretend play where Daisy makes drinks (all without using any liquids). These tea-making processes are repeated and we all have to be sure to ‘stir’ our tea each time.
The world around her
There’s lots of learning happening as Daisy matches the teapot lid to the teapot and fits it in place. And also as Daisy copies the tea making process that she’s seen us use at home or when we have a cup of tea out in a cafe. On a recent outing we stopped at a cafe where we had a pot of tea and, with a lot of pointing, Daisy had to look inside the teapot so that she could see the teabag! Daisy’s finding out about the world about her and we’re trying to encourage her curiosity to find out. (please see the video clip below).
Indoor picnics
We have quite a few toys for Daisy when she comes to stay with us but we don’t have a tea set and teapot. Instead, I put out the plastic items we use for our picnics and we can enjoy similar play with picnic plates, bowls and beakers with a set of plastic cutlery.
Tea parties
We’ve started to ask Daisy if she can put out the cups and saucers for her teddies. We do this together and talk about each teddy as we set out a plate or a cup. Just as she has done with putting the tea bag into the teapot and stirring the cup of tea, I think Daisy will soon start to set out the plates and the cups or beakers for each teddy/doll on her own.
Early number
This will be another step in her understanding of the world around her and, as she is now beginning to copy and repeat ‘One, two,’ this will also be a small step towards her understanding of numbers.
Granny Smith says:
There are so many clean quality toys now available from charity shops and similar places. Its quite possible to pick up a simple tea set for very little expense; alternatively there’s always the old picnic set or disposable plastic cups and cutlery.
Granny Smith's Diary 