Under Mom's Ackee Tree: Who Am I (Pt. 2)

Continuing on 'Who Am I?' I sat for some time pondering on how I am going to teach my two (2) years old 'Gender and The body'...her body....

1. Without trying to sound too schoolmasterish and lose my child's interest, I first tried the simplest and most economical way - The Mirror! It was a hit; she enjoyed looking at herself, pointing on her eyes, ears, etc. and telling me how many are there for each part. Granted we have been doing this since she was a baby, which made it easier for her to tell me now and save me from starting from scratch. I intentionally also use the correct name for each part, so for some vagina and penis maybe taboo but we are teaching here; vajayjay and any other names we can think of doesn't cut it. Our children also need to be comfortable saying the name of their genitals just as they would be when saying their arms or head. It builds confidence, self awareness and prevents confusion (especially if and when you are teaching your child bad touch and good touch).

2. Body Charts - My mom thought is was a wise idea to get her granddaughter a chart of the body, showing both male & female and the five senses. I thank her for this! It saves me from doing my own. As for the cost, it shouldn't cost more than J$500 in our local bookshops; I've purchased similar charts for J$300. Now every time G passes she stops and go over a body; sometimes wants me to join in with her.

3. A body out of shapes! She enjoyed putting this together with me...and I did too. She not only identified the hands, legs, etc. but also squares, circles, ovals and other shapes that we've pasted. I spent about J$300 for a pack of construction paper, J$150 for a pack of Googly eyes and J$26 for cartridge paper. I used a hole punch to get the buttons, nose and lips, and scissors to cut out the shapes after I drew them from objects around my house. I topped the hat off with a pompom, which went missing later because she's obsess with pompoms.

4. Footprint Butterfly Art - We used regular poster paint for this, and thankfully she sat quietly as she watched me paint her feet...now she wants me to do it all the time. She was also my 'glue lady' (she enjoyed squeezing the glue out of the bottle and patting the dried footprints onto the cartridge paper. We're planning on doing some sunflower hand prints next :)

5. Sort by gender - I laminated some pictures of girls and boys and let her sort them in a boy pile and a girl pile. We also counted each pile to see how many boys and girls, and did patterns (boy, boy, girl, boy, boy, ___). She gasped when she saw pictures of her family in the basket and happily sorted them :)

Later we are going to make plate faces and disguise, and face puzzle!

Books:

Although I have listed these books below, it all depends on each parent to decide what is age appropriate for their child to read or for them to read to their child (especially when speaking of the body); some words may be too big for their vocabulary and some parents may think the literature is too detailed. I suggest reading the reviews and take a look inside before deciding.

1. Who Has What?: All About Girls' Bodies and Boys' Bodies (Let's Talk about You and Me) by Robie H. Harris - http://www.amazon.com/Who-Has-What-About-Bodies/dp/0763629316/ref=cm_rdp_product