Ready! Set! Preschool!

The Engineer has a new love -- working with scissors. He knows he has to do some pages in his workbook before we can start an art project. And he is the type to make haste and get the less tasteful job done so he can enjoy his favorites.

Here he is getting the work out of the way.
The first day I taught him how to hold his scissors. I held my hands over his hands while he awkwardly opened and closed his hand. Endless times I reminded him to hold his paper with his left hand, and helped him place it in the appropriate spots.

I drew lines on construction paper for him to practice and he was off and running.

The next morning I found my knitting scissor and my plastic tape measure on the den floor. The tape measure was a snake beckoning my son into temptation. And the little knitting scissor was the same size as his own craft scissor.
Oh! How could I have forgotten?! I had the discussion myriad times with the Artist when she was this age: "We Only Cut The Paper." I'd neglected this admonition completely. And my tape measure was snipped in two places to witness my neglect. Worst of all, I could not really be too mad, because I didn't explain to my son "We Only Cut The Paper."

So the lesson of what to cut and what not to cut was dealt with the next day. No more mishaps to date, some 20 crafts later. Now he is reading most of the directions and cutting out his crafts by himself, with occasional reminders of how to hold the paper for best results.

Here he is cutting out finger puppets for a finger play The Three Little Pigs. I got a new tape measure for $0.99. It could have been much worse.