St David's day - Welsh Love Spoon shape lesson

(Goblin is 28 months)

Today I thought I'd combine our St David's day craft activity with a lesson. So we made a Welsh love spoon using basic shapes in the handle.

Welsh love spoons were traditionally carved by Welsh peasant men and given to their love interest. If she accepted the spoon it was a sign that she liked him back. The spoons were actually common across Europe but Wales was and is famed for them. Different shapes carved into the handle have different meanings, you can find a whole list at http://www.squidoo.com/welsh-lovespoons. A few of the basics are:

DAFFODIL Growth; gentleness

DIAMOND Wealth or good fortune

DOUBLE BOWL The loving couple

Now for the "lesson": I drew a big spoon, cut it out and stuck double sided tape down the handle. I presented the spoon to Goblin along with foam shapes that I'd cut out. 

 The idea was that I'd ask Goblin to find a certain shape and he'd find it and stick it onto the handle. 

 Unfortunately Goblin was not in the mood for this game and threw the shapes all over the place - I had to rescue the spoon. So instead I stuck the shapes on the handle while Goblin played with his cars. 

But it wasn't a total loss because I stuck the spoon on the door and as we were going out later he spotted it and named the shapes on the handle - Ok that should read 'attempted to name' the shapes on the handle. He actually only managed circle, star, heart and triangle. He gets confused between squares, diamonds and rectangles - understandably. And he didn't know the oval or pentagon at all, even though we have come across them in his Melissa & Doug Shapes Puzzle and his Shape Sorter.

It was a good exercise for me because I'd assumed he knew his shapes (because he can name a few of them consistently). So its just as well that while making the love spoon I also cut out a tone of extra foam shapes.

If you put craft foam shapes in water they will stick to a window. So Goblin can play with the shapes for the rest of the week and we'll use them for naming shapes and counting games. 

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