The Curiosity of Clay

We recently introduced Kian to clay.  I think he felt pretty big being up at the table with Logan and Felicity experimenting with this new medium.

I wanted to use the clay as a handwriting tool for Logan.  I showed him how to make four balls, turn them into four snakes, and then use the snakes to form a W.  Here he is working on the balls and snakes.

He got this far and froze.  This is a problem he's been having lately.  I made a W myself, step by step, to show him how to do it.  Then we made one together.  Next I asked him to do one on his own but again, he froze.  I have been very frustrated with this freezing thing lately and don't know what to do.  If I try to help, we both get frustrated.  This day, I just decided to walk away when both our frustration was rising.  I was hoping some space and independence would help him.

In the mean time, I heard Felicity excitedly yelling "U, U, U!"  I turned around to see that she had in fact made a whole collection of U's (our letter from a few weeks ago).  I know the picture below isn't that great, but I just had to include it because her proud face is just too cute.

And sure enough, some time alone to calm down and try MANY times helped Logan successfully make a W!

He even went on to voluntarily make some review letters so I'm hoping that meant he wasn't too frustrated after all.

And of course, boys will be boys, and some stabbing of clay was done.

Lissy later came back to the clay and wanted to practice cutting it.  This worked great for her since paper is still hard for her to control while manipulating the scissors.  Look at her face of concentration!  Love it.