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terrydoo73
28-01-2010, 10:25 PM
I have a little boy aged 2 years 7 months who is very very scissor happy at the moment. He just sits and cuts pieces of paper, card, whatever into a thousand pieces and would do it all day every day if I let him.

I would like to encourage him to play with some toys but cannot seem to get him to move away from the craft area (in my kitchen). The playroom is next door and easily accessible.

Any suggestions as to what I could do. Bear in mind his mum said he is happy at home wandering about outside at home unsupervised and usually "plays" with his daddys tools in the garage - hammer, nails, screwdrivers etc!!

I have tried some construction tools and lego but he doesn't appear interested. His other great passion is to destroy toys - today I had the Sunflower game out for his older sister - this is where you stick little magnetic bees to a flower head - he had managed to work out how to take the bee apart and was proceeding to do the same with all the other bees.

Blaze
28-01-2010, 11:37 PM
Some children learn in this manner - v. frustrating, but try & look at it as KUW! It may also be a connection schema (disconnecting is sometimes more important or as important than the connecting or can be the whole focus of the schema - so backwards IYSWIM) - you need to dos ome obs & see...in the mean time...

I would write up an ob of him de-constructing the bumble bee , write an assessment & for his next steps provide him with already broken toys - ones that he can't hurt himself on (or some cheap charity shop finds) that he can "destroy" to his hearts content!: :thumbsup:

HTH:)

sonia ann
29-01-2010, 06:49 AM
i have a 3 1/2 yr old at the moment who when she came to me in July couldn't even hold a pair of scissors!! When i mentioned this to mum she admitted that she had never let her try as she thought it was too dangerous:panic: .
Anyway since being here she is the same as your lo .She now loves cutting anything she can...........she is currently working her way through old catalogues and the christmas cards at the moment, to save my stock of craft paper just being consigned to little pieces on the floor.
Luckily she enjoys glue just as much and will glue the pieces on to another piece of paper..............before then cutting up that piece:)
I am now trying to encourage her to cut larger pieces with the christmas cards so we can make jigsaws to stick back together.

However with your little one I agree with Blaze and would also go with her suggestion and would supply him with a box of safe "broken" toys that he can take apart and "mend", along with age appropriate construction toys.

singingcactus
29-01-2010, 01:54 PM
For indoor play here we use toy hammers and golf tees as hammer and nails (then we use tweezers and gently place large marble in the tee cup). We have various sized padlocks and keys that the kids use, we have different grade sandpaper, some loose some glued to blocks that the kids can either grade or use to sand other blocks of wood in the box. We have open access to scissors here and often have them in our sensory table with a wide variety of things to cut - paper, card, straws, leaves etc.
He sounds like a fiddler to me, I'm sure you will get loads of info on schemas very soon, but I would not try to fight it. This is how he wants to play so I would try to provide this sort of resources. Certainly though I would be really unimpressed at him breaking toys just cos he felt like it, he needs to understand that there are things he can 'de construct' and things he cannot.
We also have a discovery table here with magnifying glasses, nets, floaty fabrics, compass, torches etc which keep busy little fingers very happy.

mamasheshe
29-01-2010, 04:16 PM
my brother got a letter sent home from school when he was 5 (he's now 22) saying

"please can shaun refrain from bringing his own scissors into school again he has not only cut his own shoe laces but everyone else s "
my mum still has the note!

i banned my oldest age 4 from using scissors for a week because she cut her sisters hair (2) and told me "it was an accident as she was putting them in the cupboard they accidentally cut her sisters hair!"

we are defo a scissor happy family sorry your thread reminded me of this xx

Goatgirl
29-01-2010, 04:35 PM
Hi :),
Wow, the breaking things must be driving you up the wall!! I'd be encouraging the LO to keep right on cutting things with scissors if that's how he likes to play... I have a LO who loves this also (but other things too, thank goodness) and will be interested to see what people suggest for development of this activity. Ive given him different textured paper and other materials to cut etc... He loves play doh too and luckily I already have play doh scissors and a 'salon' set, so he can while away a good 20 minutes 'growing' and then cutting 'hair'.

I wonder what it is about the cutting he likes... the separation of the pieces? the feeling of the paper being cut? the control it gives him? Its fascinating... there's always something new to learn in this job :D

If you have inspiration, do share!! good luck.

bws,
Wendy :)

dlissaman
30-01-2010, 10:46 PM
I cook spagetti and sometimes colour it with food colouring. This provides a sensory cutting activity. I am sure there are lots of other ideas out there to vary the cutting theme.

Blaze
30-01-2010, 11:01 PM
You can do lots of cutting in cooking activies - watch I can cook on cbeebies!

Goatgirl
31-01-2010, 03:07 PM
LOVING the spaghetti idea :thumbsup:
Just remembered my nephew used to 'break' everything, but was actually just trying to see how it worked.. we got him some of those vehicles sets, with large nuts and bolts and a screwdriver, which kept him interested for quite a while....
How about saving juice cartons, wash them, cover any openings with some serious tape, and find lots of ways to knock over serious high rise towers :D ?

patevans
31-01-2010, 03:14 PM
at what age should children be encouraged to use scissors?

Mrs Book
10-02-2010, 11:02 PM
The boys had scissors this afternoon. Note to self we need more scissors:laughing:

LO decided she wanted to cut as well. So gave her a pair of scissors to use. The plastic sort that don't seem to do anything:laughing: It was the first time she had had scissors but it was great to watch as she was pulling some wonderful faces and trying to work out which way round they go. (Yes did do an ob)

Remember doing an activity with I think 2yr olds of ripping paper so they can see how it tears and then explaining when they have scissors that they do the same thing as we did ripping the papper.

Love the spaghetti idea. A good activity to do with a 2.5yr old and scissors & a 12mth old who can do touchy feely play.