A 'milestone' and an experiment

We made our Flat Sayer and Flat Duncan dolls yesterday. I drew up an outline for the dolls and Sayer cut hers out, almost by herself. She needed a bit of help where things got tight (ie, the armpits, crotch, and under the pony tails). I made a paper dress and paper shoes out of some pink flowery scrapbook paper and Sayer drew on a face and colored in the hair. Flat Sayer is a cutie :)

Duncan likes to cut, but cannot yet do anything as complex as cut along a line, especially not a long curvy line. So I cut out his doll and dressed it in paper clothes while he and Sayer were in the bath last night. I showed it to him and asked 'who is this?' and he grinned really big and said 'Flat Duncan!' I asked if he wanted to let Sayer draw Flat Duncan's face or if he wanted to do it himself, and he said he would do it. I was slightly nervous about this, as Duncan has thus far drawn nothing but scribbles. Nothing.

No, not *quite* true. He started a scribble and stopped when he recognized that he'd drawn the letter J, and was able to write a letter O after it when asked (thus leading to the JOY holiday cards we sent out last month). And sometimes after drawing a bit bunch of swirling scribbles he'll tell me it's a twister or a whirlpool. But that is it.

So this morning I got Duncan a blue crayon and told him that he should draw two circles for eyes. I indicated about where they should be on the head of the doll, then stood back and let him do it. And he did. So I handed him a red crayon and told him to draw a line to give Flat Duncan a mouth. And he did, though he didn't press very hard so it was difficult to see. We did it again, together, with him directing the movement and me pressing down. Then I asked if he wanted to give Flat Duncan a nose. He did, so I gave him a brown crayon and we drew a little line to indicate a nose. Flat Duncan now has a face.

Yes, I helped him. But I'm going to call it a milestone anyway, because he got the concept of drawing the individual parts to make the whole face, and was able to do the eyes and mouth by himself. Wahooo!

Which brings us to the experiment portion of this post. It's totally unrelated to the face-drawing or the Flat Duncan doll. It has to do with Duncan's Gymnastics class. He is currently in a parent/child class, but it ends in a week and after that he'll move into the independent class.

Today is not normally a class day, but we have make-ups to do, so the kids are both scheduled for class, with Sayer's class following Duncan's. The class that Sayer is having her make-up in is for kids aged 3-4. Yes, she just turned 5, but she's been doing make-ups in this class all semester, so no one is worried about it. This is the last class meeting before the new semester, after which she'll be moved into a more age-appropriate class for doing any make-ups.

But her presence in the younger class gives us an interesting opportunity. I've called TLG and confirmed that it's okay with them to put Duncan in the same class with Sayer - without me. His birthday is still 9 days away, so *technically* he's too young for the class. But he knows the teachers and the equipment and Sayer will be in the class with him and I'll be in the lobby in case it just doesn't work. The difference is that in the parent/child class it's okay for the little ones to run around exploring but in the independent class they want the kids to stay in the group and follow the activities. I expect everything will be fine. But we'll observe and see, yes?

And should I actually get that hour to myself out in the lobby, I'll be doing a bit of knitting while I watch them have fun. :)