Gears

So here is a secret for you all--Olivia's intelligence is causing me quite a bit of anxiety.  I actually wrote a whole post about it, but then decided not to publish it.  I'm just not ready to put it out there into the universe yet. :)  BUT, I will say that I have been doing lots of research on ways to help her out.  My anxiety doesn't come from labeling her this or that.  It also doesn't come from does she know (fill in the blank) or what should I teach next.  Really, it's just that I want to make sure that I am doing what is appropriate and best for her.  I absolutely do not want to push her in any way, shape, or form and have her end up hating learning/school.  But on the other hand, I don't want to sit back and not feed into her gifts and abilities and love of knowledge.  It's such a tricky balance.

In my quest to find appropriate toys and activities, I saw listed that a great toy is one of those cubed blocks that have the bead mazes on top.  As I looked at it further, I realized that we basically had that cubed block... just not in a cube.  We have a similar toy to each side of the cube.  The only thing we didn't have was a toy that resembled gears.  That sent me to Amazon to try to find something that would work.  After looking around and doing a little research, I found this Melissa and Doug one that I thought would be perfect.

(source)

The box said it "Helps teach colors, shapes, counting, and simple mechanics; promotes fine motor skills, problem solving and creative play."

So I sat Olivia down to introduce her to this toy.

To my knowledge, she had never seen a gear type toy before.

She got right to work taking all of the gears off.

She would put them back to the correct matching colored magnet, but she had a hard time getting the right hole to go on the little peg.  Hence, the motor skill work!

I tried to show her how the gears worked, but she wanted nothing to do with it! :)

Proud of herself :)

This is a great toy, because it can grow with her.

There are ten different picture scenes to choose from.  Plus, right now she's just interested in matching up the colors.  Eventually being able to move all of the gears will be part of the fun.