Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Nonconformist

This evening, Katherine and I were playing with one of those toys designed to teach children their shapes. It had little colored blocks, pyramids, and balls, and a container with corresponding holes in which the child is supposed to drop each particular shape.

Katherine, I must admit, has not yet shown much aptitude at being able to get the right shaped piece into the corresponding hole. Tonight was no different. She tried to put the pyramid into the square hole, and the block into the round hole, etc. She was getting pretty frustrated.

Finally, she picked up the container and scrutinized it. She played with the lid, popped off the top, then proceeded to place each piece neatly into the container, like so:

Does it really matter HOW the pieces get back in the container, as long as they do?

Katherine then placed the cover back on the container, and turned to me with a look that seemed to say, "Pretty clever, huh?"

Clever indeed. If infant behavior is an indicator of future ability, Katherine may not do so well on standardized tests, but no one will ever be able to tell me she can't solve problems!

2 comments:

Marine Wife said...

She sounds pretty smart. There's nothing wrong with thinking outside of the box!

Swistle said...

I think HER answer is the SMART answer! That's a WAY better idea that painstakingly and needlessly putting each shape in through a specialized slot. Smart, smart girl!