I Stamping!

"I wanna do some-ding else."
I hear this from Zozie when he has trouble deciding what to do.

Puzzles?
No.
Trains?
No.
Play-Doh?
No.
Go to your homeschool and see what you want to do?
OK.

Moments later... 
I Stamping!!

GREAT! 
Love stamps. 
Actually...love WASHABLE stamping inks more.
He grabs the stamping tray, I rip a piece of paper off the roll.
We meet back at the table.

Inspecting the ink.

Different than using crayons or markers, the stamping process is a really great practice of applying "pressure" levels. 

A few months ago, he started out using the stamps by imitating my hand movements. 
Tap the ink pad with the stamp, then tap the paper. 
After a while, he noticed that the longer (and harder) he pushed on the ink pad, the darker the smudges on the paper.  Then soon after that, he noticed the longer (but not too much harder) he pushed on the paper, the less smudgy the image is.

This actually helped with his CUTTING skills at the dining table!
Really??  Totally.

This Pressure Sensitivity exercise lets him see the cause and effect of applying different degrees of force.
Instead of making "imprints" with his knife on his pancakes, he's actually going till he cuts off a piece.

One of Zo's favorite stamping games is having me make a marker "train track" and him stamping the Choo-Choo along the boxes... 

Although it will be a while before he can color "inside the box," he certainly enjoys stamping in it.
Hopefully, he'll keep outside coloring for a long while to come...there's something so awesome about those random squiggly lines that 2 year-olds make.
Can't teach that.