Magic, numbers and puzzles

Miss M's (3.5yrs) latest favourite thing to do is to "beshooom" something for you.  Except when she says it, it sounds a bit like "becharm".  She will do this hourly, or more.  Anything that she perceives that you might need in the moment.  This week I have been lucky enough to get new clothesline pegs, after she watched two in a row disintegrate; a foot stool for my, apparently, tired feet; dinner so I didn't have to cook; a remote control for her sister Miss F (18 months) after I said I wished she had a mute button for a few minutes! And a million other things I clearly needed.  If only her magic had some substance to it! I think I have a few different TV shows to thank for this! Ben and Holly is one that comes to mind... 

Numbers is a big thing at the moment for Miss M.  Anything numbers is completely amazing.  It started with having to change the way we transition Miss M from one thing to the next.  As a kid on the spectrum this is always a challenge.  We used to write them on a white board (didn't matter that she can't yet read) and rub each thing off as we did it - that lost it's charm recently.  So this week's style is to point to the clock in the living room and say "when the big hand reaches the top, it's time to get dressed/get in the bath/ have dinner/ go to bed .... ".  The only draw back to this is that you need to be watching the clock and not say it at 5 past something (e.g. 7.05) because, as it was pointed out "the big hand has already passed the top!".   A positive for this method (other than the simple fact that after five days it's still working!) is that she's becoming more aware of numbers.  After you point out the clock and the impending activity, she will stop whatever she is doing and climb onto the couch and watch the clock with huge levels of excitement (flowing over to her sister who also climbs the couch to watch).  It kind of defeats the purpose of having her finish of her previously enjoyed activity to sit and watch the couch... but whatever works! 

So from this she has developed a love of numbers.  I found some books (possibly bought ages ago, or given... I can't remember that far back!) that have dotted lines of numbers so they can be traced over with a whiteboard pen, over and over and over again.  Well they came out today and the two girls had an absolute ball.  Miss F drew crazy lines and was giggling hysterically - then I realised she was drawing on the table, herself, the chair - basically anything but the book! Miss M however traced over every number in order for several pages.  Delighting when she got the numbers right and at the same time getting seriously upset when her tracing went off the line - massive A type personality there! 

Today we got out the jigsaw puzzle box.  I'm sure we're not the only ones to have one of these? A big box full of those toddler appropriate puzzles (with the little handles on all the pieces)- and more recently a few big kid type ones - 12 or 16 pieces.  Well we have about 25 toddler puzzles.  None of them had all their pieces.  All the boards were nicely piled up. All the pieces were hidden underneath in a tormenting mountain.  (not sure if I thank my wife or my mum for this!).   Eventually (once I had sorted them all out) we had a great time with the puzzles.  Miss M has always loves puzzles.  Miss F prefers to just throw them.  Today, however, we managed to get Miss F enjoying the puzzles and cheering after every piece she put in.  Miss M managed to do a big puzzle (? 24 pieces) all by herself - and it didn't even have the cheat picture underneath!