When I stumbled across this blog the other day and saw this activity,  I knew I wanted to try it with Miss G.  Already having all of the required materials on hand, we gave it a go this afternoon.

While the original idea partners o-shaped cereal with play dough and uncooked spaghetti, I replaced the play dough with half of an apple and the spaghetti with bamboo skewers (you’ll see why in just a minute).

To get started, we put our apple, cut side down, on a large plate and poked the bamboo skewers into it at different angles.  Gracen helped me with this part and it was actually very doable for her.  This was part of the reason I used skewers instead of spaghetti.  Being that spaghetti is so thin and fragile, I knew it wouldn’t last through set up, let alone play, with my enthusiastic little lady.

With our “porcupine” ready to go, I gave Miss G a small bowl of o-shaped cereal, and let the threading and stacking begin.

Gracen really got into this activity and was truly having a blast stacking O’s on skewers.

This best part is that not only is it great fine motor practice, but this activity is also a great counting and concentration activity too.

Of course, little ones don’t realize all that.  They just think they’re playing a game and having fun.

Grae was actually so into the activity that she wasn’t really interested in eating her o’s, which I thought for sure she would be.

The perk to using an apple (or any other edible anchor) is that if/when the eating stage happens, you don’t have to worry about your little one eating o’s encrusted with play dough.

Part way through, Grae realized that the o’s were sliding down the skewers and started saying, “Wheeee!” each time she’d send one down their bamboo slide.  Too funny.

Here’s a video of Gracen hard at play…