Opposites

The toddlers have some books and a game that helps children practice the concept of opposites. When Jake and Viva have pictures to help them, they do well. Bentley knows lots of opposites without any visual coaching. On Thursday while driving to the library I started an opposites game with the little ones. Jake and Viva did not join in very often, but Bentley was eager to show off his knowledge.

We started out with pairs they knew from their books and game. They were excellent on hot-cold, down-up, top-bottom, over-under, wet-dry, day-night, fast-slow, big-little, front-back, tall-short, on-off, in-out, open-shut, etc.

Sometimes when the toddlers (Viva in particular) were stuck for an answer they would respond with the obvious one: wet-not wet, hard-not hard. This shows a good understanding of the concept of opposites, but it doesn't exhibit the depth of vocabulary I'm looking for.

After running through the common pairs of opposites I tried a few new ones on them: stop-go, sun-moon, white-brown (?), and green light-red light. Good work!

Next I tried "Pretty?" There was silence for a while and then Bentley said "Naked!" Another unconventional pairing was given when I asked the trio "Princess?" (Viva's nickname), I thought they might say "Monkey" (Jake's preferred nickname), but after some struggle they came up with "Ballerina". Ballerina?!

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Today Jake rode to church with Mark and I while Viva and Bentley went with their parents. I tried the opposites game with Jake. I was amazed how many he knew. He does not need visual clues like I thought; he just needs a little more time to say his answer than his older brother is willing to give him.

Jake knew all the pairings that we practice except old-young. Jake and Viva both struggle with that one. I coached him, "Great-grandma is....?" "Old!" he replied. "Jake and Viva are....?" "Twins!" he responded. (I'm glad to know that I will never be old because I'm a twin!)

The concept of aging definitely isn't connecting with Jake. Another pairing of his that I liked was when I asked "Tall?" He said "Bigger!" I like his thinking. Forget tall-short. Let's go for tall-bigger.