First Fingerpaintings - A Tactile Experience / Prvo slikanje prstima - taktilno iskustvo

A baby/toddler can start fingerpainting as soon as she/he can sit independently without support.

Since babies/toddlers put everything in their mouth it is good to offer them some non-toxic and safe paints, and what better then babyfood!

We usually fingerpaint after a meal (specially if there are some food leftovers) when baby Z is not hungry anymore, so eating the paint (food) isn't the main attraction!

We have a nice white highchair with a white tray, and I just pour a little colorful food on the tray for the little fingers and hands to dip in. The tray surface is very smooth, and the 'paint' just slips on it. No need for paper. For a baby/toddler of this age painting is about the tactile experience and feeling and about movement, much more than a visual experience or the product. I can just imagine how beautiful the slippery feeling must be on her hands and fingers. 

U principu, čim beba počne samostalno da sedi, može i da slika prstićima.

S obzirom da ovako male bebe (a i one malo starije) sve stavljaju u usta, najbezbednije je ove prve slike slikati - hranom (npr. bebi-hranom)!

Mi obično slikamo nakon obroka (naročito ako ima ostataka) kada beba Z nije više gladna, tako da joj stavljanje 'boje' u usta nije glavna atrakcija!

Imamo lepu belu visoku stolicu za hranjenje sa velikim belim poslužavnikom, i obično samo sipam malo bebi-hrane direktno na poslužavnik za bebu Z da umoči svoje prstiće i ručice. Površina poslužavnika je veoma glatka, i prsti i ruke umočene u boju/hranu prosto klize po njoj.

Papir ovde nije neophodan, jer je za bebu ovog uzrasta slikanje prvenstveno taktilna a ne vizuelna aktivnost! Za bebu su važni dodir,  taktilni osećaj i pokret -mnogo više nego vizuelni doživljaj i proizvod koji treba sačuvati  (iako bi većina mama želela da sačuva ove bebine prve naslikane dragocenosti).

Sometimes I set her paper because the paper surface is different - more rough. In that case I tape it to the highchair tray so it doesn't move and frustrate her.

And the colors? At this stage they are not of primary importance, remember?  Anyway, it is good to use high contrasts since the babie's sight is still developing. If you wish, though, different colors, take a look into your refrigerator to find some: spinach for green, carrot for orange, sour cream for white...

Ponekad dam bebi Z i papir zato što je njegova tekstura potpuno drugačija od površine poslužavnika: mnogo je hrapavija! Boja se potpuno drugačije kreće po papiru, nego po glatkom poslužavniku; drugačiji je osećaj na prstima. (Papir obavezno zalepim selotejpom za poslužavnik kako se ne bi pomerao u toku slikanja.)

A šta je sa bojama? Na ovom uzrastu one nisu od presudnog značaja, sećate se? Dobro je, međutim, koristiti jake kontarste jer se bebin vid još uvek razvija. Ali, ako ipak želite različite boje, zavirite u svoj frižider u potrazi za njima: spanać za zelenu, šargarepa za narandžastu, pavlaka za belu...

How do you draw when you are 4? / Kako se crta sa 4 godine?

What I am fascinated most about V's drawing is the fluency that he draws with.

He can ALWAYS draw, and he ALWAYS  knows what to draw. He takes a blank paper and a marker and the drawings and lines just pour out of the marker as if he were spilling water. There is never a "What could I draw now?" moment that is so characteristic for a-little-older kids then he is. His drawing can last for hours, and he seems to never get tired or bored or unsatisfied or dissapointed or frustrated or discouraged, or all the other so characteristic things and feelings of the drawing world of a-little-older kids and grown-ups! He doesn't need encouragement nor motivation, nor commenation to draw. He just loves to draw and that's what he does. Simple as that! Beautiful as that! Without interfering of any kind from my part.

And I? I enjoy  this so so much in a kind of an irrational way. It is the unrestrained freedom and spontaneity and love and need for drawing that I am so excited about and that I so admire! And this freedom is so very normal and natural for a 4 years old, it could not be more natural than that! And I hope that maybe, just maybe, this phase will last a little bit longer then it usually does, and a little bit longer then it is normal! Cause it is so beautiful!

Najviše me fascinira fluentnost sa kojom V crta. On UVEK  može da crta i UVEK zna šta da crta. Uzme prazan papir i flomaster i crteži i linije prosto cure iz flomastera kao da prosipa vodu. Ne postoji "A šta sada da crtam?" momenat koji je tako karakterističan za malo stariju decu nego što je on. Njegovo crtanje nekada može da traje satima i deluje kao da se nikada ne umori, kao da mu nikada ne dosadi, kao da nikada nije nezadovaoljan, kao da se nikada ne razočara, demotiviše, isfustrira... i sve ostalo što je tako uobičajeno za crtanje u svetu malo starije dece i odraslih. Nije mu potrebno ohrabrenje niti motivacija spolja niti pohvala da bi crtao. On jednostavno voli da crta i to i radi. Bez bilo kakvog uticaja ili mešanja s moje strane.

A ja? Ja uživam u tome na skoro iracionalan način. Ta nesputana sloboda i spontanost, ljubav i potreba da se toliko crta su ono što me uzbuđuje i čemu se toliko divim! A ta sloboda je potpuno normalna i prirodna za četvorogodišnjaka, da ne može biti prirodnija. I nadam se da će možda ta faza potrajati malo duže nego što je uobičajeno i normalno, i da ću, možda, malo duže imati prilike da  uživam u toj čaroliji dečjeg crtanja! Jer je uživanje gledati ga kako toliko uživa!

The Very Hungry Caterpillar Made of Clay / Gladna gusenica od gline

In this post I wrote about The Very Hungry Caterpillar. We continued making holes, since that's a very interesting thing for a four-years-old boy to do. This time we used clay. When ever we use clay, we need to knead it first for a few minutes so that it becomes soft and easy to play with. Even just kneading and punching clay with the little fingers is a great activity for kids!


Ovde sam pisala o Gladnoj gusenici. Nastavili smo da pravimo rupice jer je to nešto što veoma zabavlja četvorogodišnjake. Ovoga puta smo koristili glinu. Kad god koristimo glinu, prvo je nekoliko minuta dobro izmesimo kako bi postala meka i spremna za rad. Čak i samo mešenje i gnječenje gline  prstićima je odlična i dovoljna aktivnost za sebe. 

V made a lot of small balls of clay.  He punched holes in each of them with a small stick. Ideally, you should leave the punched clay balls over night to dry and harden (it is much easier to bead hard balls of clay then soft ones), but who can wait?  But, there is the magic: in the attempt to thread the string through a hole of a soft clay ball, the ball kinda squashes a little (?) bit in the hands of a four-years-old! The result? Perfect-imperfect-and-all-different ball-ish pieces!


V je prvo napravio puno glinenih loptica. Probušio je rupu u svakoj od njih pomoću grančice. Pošto je mnogo lakše nizati stvrdnute glinene loptice nego meke, idealno bi bilo da su se probušene loptice odložile (dovoljno je da odstoje na vazduhu preko noći ako loptice nisu prevelike) kako bi se osušile, ali ko bi dočekao? Međutim, upravo se tu krije magija: u pokušaju da se provuče kanap kroz rupicu meke glinene loptice, loptica se donekle spljošti u ručicama četvorogodišnjaka! Rezultat? Savršeni-nesavršeni-i-svi-različiti loptoliki oblici! 

The Very Hungry Caterpillar / Gladna guenica

The Very Hungry Caterpillar, a book by Eric Carle, is very popular. We got ours from a very dear friend when V was one. He loved it then, and he still loves it. For those who don't know, the book is about a hungry caterpillar who eats everything in his way. After popping out of an egg on Sunday, the very hungry caterpillar eats holes through the books pages as he eats his way through a variety of foods, beginning with an apple on Monday, two pears on Tuesday and ending with five oranges on Friday and 10 defferent foods on Saturday. The now very fat caterpillar builds a cocoon. After staying in it for two weeks, he nibbles a hole in the cocoon and emerges a beautiful butterfly. Every page in this book has a hole on it where the caterpillar eats through the food, and putting his fingers in the holes is something that V loves the most. 

So, one day, after eating a lot of tangerines, we decided to make our orange caterpillar. We tore the tangerine peels into pieces of approximately same size and then punched a hole in the center of each piece with a paper hole-puncher. V loved this part!

Gladna gusenica, knjiga Erika Karla je veoma popularna u svetu. Mi smo našu dobili od veoma drage prijateljice kad je V imao godinu dana. Svidela mu se tada, i još uvek mu se sviđa. Za one koji ne znaju, ova knjiga je o jednoj gladnoj gusenici koja jede sve na šta naiđe. Nakon što se izlegla iz jajeta u nedelju, gladna gusenica je u ponedeljak pojela jednu jabuku, u utorak - dve kruške, a u petak je pojela pet pomorandži, da bi u subotu pojela čak 10 različitih vrsta hrane (od čokoladne torte do lubenice). Onda je, sada veoma debela gusenica, napravila sebi čauru i nakon dve nedelje iz nje se izlegao prelepi leptir!

Na svakoj stranici knjige nalaze se rupice koje je "progrizla" gusenica jedući svoju hranu. V, naravno, najviše od svega, voli da stavlja svoje prstiće u njih.

Tako smo jednoga dana, nakon što smo se, kao gladna gusenica dobro najeli mandarina, odlučili da napravimo našu narandžastu gusenicu. Sačuvali smo kore od mandarina i iscepkali ih na komade približno iste veličine. Svaki komadić smo u sredini probušili bušačem za rupe. Ovaj deo se V-u najviše dopao!

After that I made a knot at the end of the string so that the pieces do not fall out, and V beaded the pieces on the string. One hole at a time.

And voila! That's it, simple as that!

Potom sam zavezala čvor na jednom kraju kanapa da komadići probušenih kora ne bi spali, a V ih je nanizao provlačeći kanap kroz rupice.

I, eto, to je to!

Felt Balls for Baby / Filcane loptice za bebu

My little girl Z is one. A few months ago I made some small felt balls for her to play with. (I used this tutorial to make them, and then this one to decorate them.) 

And she does play with them, and she does like them.

Moja ćerka Z ima jednu godinu. Nedavno sam joj napravila ove male filcane lopte. (Koristila sam ovo uputstvo da naparvim loptice i ovo da napravim šare na njima, a nepredenu vunu u boji kao i igle za filcanje sam kupila u radnji Modelina u Hilandarskoj 1a u Beogradu.) I Z se zaista igra sa njima, i voli ih.

Z likes transfering them from one bowl to another one, one by one. Her fingers, holding this tiny little ball are so so cute. 

Z najviše voli da prebacuje loptice iz jedne kutije u drugu, i to jednu po jednu. Njeni prstići koji drže malu filcanu loptu su jako jako slatki.

After a while I made a box with a hole inspired by this montessori Infant Object Permanence Boxes. (I used a cardboard shoe box with a lid and just cut out a hole on top of it).

These boxes are used for many reasons: fitting the ball through the hole practices not only concentration (which you should see - with what great concentration a one-year-old can do this activity!),  but fine motor skills and eye-hand coordination as well. Also, these boxes provide an infant with experiences of object permanence.

Object permanence is the ability to recognize an object or being as existing whether or not we can see it. This is a simple concept for adults, but not for infants between 8 and 12 months. Before developing this ability, babies believe that an object or a person desapears if out of sight. Games during these transitional months can help develop baby's cognitive learning skills in this area. Important components in any object permanence game (such as peek-a-boo, hide-and-seek, hidden-object-games, etc.) are "appearing and disappearing," "seeking" and "revealing" objects or persons.

Nakon nekog vremena sam napravila kutiju sa rupom po uzoru na ovu montesori kutiju za bebe. Upotrebila sam jednu kartonsku kutiju za cipele sa poklopcem i na vrhu probušila rupu. 

Upotrebom, tj. igranjem sa ovakvom montesori kutijom razvija se više stvari: ubacivanjem loptica u rupu razvija se ne samo koncentracija (treba samo videti sa kakvom i kolikom koncentracijom jednogodišnja beba sprovodi ovu radnju!), već i fina motorika i koordinacija oka i ruke. 

Pored toga ovakve kutije razvijaju kod beba koncept permanentnosti ili stalnosti objekta. 

Stalnost objekta je sposobnost da se objekti i ljudi doživljavaju kao postojeći bez obzira da li ih vidimo ili ne. Ovo je jednostavan koncept za odrasle ali ne i za bebe.

Oko osmog meseca bebe počinju da shvataju da to što je nešto trenutno nestalo iz njihovog vidnog polja ne mora da znači da je to zauvek nestalo. Kada shvate da objekti i dalje postoje, čak i kad ne mogu da se vide, one shvataju ‘stalnost objekata.’ Razumevanje stalnosti objekata je početak razvijanja predviđanja, radoznalosti i rešavanja problema. 

Neke igre kao što su pikabu, žmurke, sakriveni predmet, podstiču razvoj ove sposobnosti, a važne komponente ovih igara su "pojavljivanje i nestajanje", "traženje" i "otkrivanje" predmeta ili ljudi.

So, back to Z, after fitting all the felt balls through the hole, she would remove the lid and find them all together inside the box. And she would be happy to play this game again and again and again and again. 

Dakle, da se vratimo na Z: nakon što bi ubacila sve loptice u rupu, jednu po jednu, podigla bi poklopac i našla sve loptice u kutiji. I bila bi jako srećna i ponovila bi igru opet. I opet. I opet.  I opet.

Paper fish / Ribice od papira

Sometimes, all you need to have hours of fun with your little one, is some paper, a pencil and a pair of scissors. Drawing our toys is something both V and I love. He loves animals and he loves to draw them. He could draw them for hours. He draws, and I cut.
Here, in these photos from last year (when he was 3), he is drawing fish. Tons of them. I could hardly manage to cut them - there were so many. 
Finaly, after a lot of drawing and cutting, we laid them down, and started a new play: we imagined a big ocean, added a few rocks (pillows)... V "jumped" into the ocean and swam among the fish for a while. He was a fish too. Then we made some paper boats and a fish hook (we used a straw and some string) and we ended up fishing all afternoon. We laid our fish into a baking pan and made some beautiful dinner!

Ponekada je, za sate dobre igre sa vašim mališanom, dovoljno da imate malo papira, olovku i makaze. Crtanje "igračaka" je nešto što i V i ja mnogo volimo! On obožava životinje i voli da ih crta. Može da ih crta satima. On ih crta, a ja isecam. 

Ovde, na ovim fotografijama od prošle godine (kada je imao 3 god.) V crta ribe. Na desetine riba. Jedva sam ih isekla koliko ih je bilo. 

Konačno, nakon mnogo crtanja i isecanja, raširili smo ih po podu, i nova igra je mogla da počne: zamislili smo okean, dodali nekoliko stena (jastuka)... V je "skočio" u vodu i zaplivao sa svojim ribicama. I on je bio riba. Onda smo napravili nekoliko papirnih čamaca i pecaljku (od slamčice i kanapa) pa smo proveli ostatak popodneva pecajući. Ulovljene ribice smo poređali u pleh i napravili divnu večeru! 

Playdough and buttons / Testo i dugmad

Small kids love playing with homemade playdough. There are a lot of recepies out there, but we use this one: 

- 2 cups plain flour

- 1 cup salt

- 2/3 cup water

- 1 tablespoon cooking oil

Combine flour and salt. Add water and oil. Mix until ingredients are combined. Knead well! If the consistency is to wett, add more flour. If it is to dry, add some water. 

I found some buttons around the house and I thought - why not present them to V and see what will happen if combined with playdough. I gave him the dough and a cup filled with buttons, and here's what he did. 

First he played with the dough (kneading it, punching it, rolling it, squeezing it...) Then he made balls, and turned them in to pancakes. Then he started adding buttons squeezing them into the surface of the pancake. Mosaic? Why not.

In this way we could use other materials as well such as little stones and pebbels, beans, sea-shells...etc.

Mala deca veoma vole da se igraju sa testom. Postoji veliki broj različitih recepata za testo za igranje, ali mi volimo da koristimo ovaj:

- 2 čaše belog brašna

- 1 čaša soli

- 3/4 čaše vode

- 1 supena kašika ulja

Brašno i so pomešati a zatim dodati vodu i ulje. Mešati dok se svi sastojci ne sjedine. Izvaditi smesu na dasku i mesiti testo dok ne postane meko i elastično. Ukoliko je testo gnjecavo dodajte malo brašna i obrnuto, i ukoliko je suviše suvo i raspada se - dodajte malo vode.

U kući sam pronašla malu količinu dugmadi i odlučila da ih ponudim V zajedno sa testom i vidim šta će se desiti. V se prvo igrao samo sa testom - gnječio ga je, utiskivao prstiće, čupkao, valjao, mesio...

Zatim je napravio nekoliko loptica, pritisnuo ih dlanom i pretvorio u palačinke, u koje je potom utiskivao dugmad. Mozaik? Zašto da ne.

Na ovaj način se umesto dugmadi mogu koristiti i drugi materijali kao što su npr. kamečići ili obluci, pasulj, školjke, itd.

After that we tried to imprint the texture of the buttons into the dough, and it was interesting as well. We got some beautiful textures. 

Due to the salt in the dough, after dried (after a few days) the dough hardens.

Nakon toga smo probali da otisnemo teksturu dugmadi u testo i bilo je isto veoma zanimljivo. Dobili smo neke veoma zanimljive teksture u testu.

Zahvaljujući soli dodatoj brašnu, nakon što se osuši (posle nekoliko dana), testo će se stvrdnuti kao kamen.