BabyGirl’s Nuts and Bolts
A quick diversion at the hardware store last night let me set up a special box for BabyGirl that I’d been meaning to put together for a little while now: a Nuts and Bolts box for fine motor work.
I picked up a small wooden box for $1 at the craft store, and put on a few tool stickers – even I didn’t have stickers of nuts and bolts! Then I filled the box with some carefully chosen nuts and bolts from the hardware store.
I shopped in the bulk section where you can buy individual nuts and bolts. I bought 3 hex screws that are 1/4 inch wide and 1 inch long, 3 that are 3/8 inch x 1 inch, and 3 that are 1/2 inch x 1 inch. Then I bought 9 nuts – one to match each screw. I only paid a few dollars for all 18 pieces – prices ranged from about 10 cents to about 35 cents per piece.
BabyGirl and I haven’t done too much that follows the Montessori model, but when I had the box put together I showed her how I would use it, then gave her a chance to try it herself. This morning when she wanted to work with it again, she copied my model without any prompting. She took the box to her desk and opened it. Then she carefully picked out the nine bolts and stood them upright – you can see that in the picture above.
Next, she started working on fitting one nut onto each bolt. As she did, she copied some of the language I’d used last night when we explored the box together. “This is too big. This one is smaller. This doesn’t fit. Here’s the right one.” She also lined up the finished bolts to one side of the desk.
You can see how proud she was to have put one nut on each bolt! As she gets better at this project, I will encourage her to wind the nuts all the way down the bolts, instead of stopping in the middle or near the top, like she is doing right now. I can also include two nuts per bolt or make things harder by adding in sets of nuts and bolts in 5/16 and 7/16 inches.
But her work wasn’t finished! She even remembered to carefully take the nuts and bolts apart before putting them back in the box.
BabyGirl loves her new box & I love how quick and easy it was to put together. The fact that it’s a tiny little box that stays closed instead of an open tray is a big plus in our cozy little, overcrowded house!
October 8th, 2009 at 7:15 pm
Oh, man, V would be all about that.
October 9th, 2009 at 1:30 pm
This is awesome … Trishy would love that! Quit being so dang inspiring.
October 10th, 2009 at 4:12 pm
Doug used to keep his stuff in special little wooden boxes like that, but he never really recovered emotionally from losing a nut.
December 2nd, 2009 at 9:27 pm
What a great idea!! Thanks so much for the inspiration. This looks great. How old is your daughter? Mine is 21 months…may not be quite ready for this one, but we’ll give it a whirl and see….can always put it away again until later, right?