More about my 21 month old genius...

...well, at least we think he's a genius!

I can't believe I forgot to write this in this past month's update on James because I think it's quite increible. James really loves puzzles and he's actually become quite an expert on a couple of them. One of these particular puzzles has a farm theme with animals and a tractor. It also has good-sized wooden knobs for him to grab the pieces easier and pictures under the pieces, too, to help him put them in their proper space. He does it in no time! There's also a shape puzzle at Grandma's house that he loves to do. (It, too, has tiny knobs on the pieces to help him pick them up.)

James also has a shape sorter that he loves to do. He'll bring it over to us in order for us to open it up and get all the shapes out. Then, he needs help putting it back together so he can sort the shapes. He has really become quite the expert on it lately! If we turn it to the correct side, he can find where it goes on his own almost immediately. He is so smart! We even heard him say "oval" the other day (but only once and not since then). I need to be more intentional about naming the shapes when he puts them in. He actually knows what several of the shapes are, but he doesn't say them yet.

We're also working on getting him to say "help please!" instead of this really whiny sqealy sound when he's trying to do something and gets frustrated because he can't do it and needs help. For a while there, we'd just do whatever it was he neeeded because we knew what this sound meant. However, I realized this is just encouraging this to go on and it really does get annoying, so we're trying to put an end to it by asking him to use his words and say "help, please!" or "help mommy/daddy!" (Thanks, Blair, for this wonderful idea!)

(4/21/08) - James feels so proud when he finds the right place to put his shapes!