Ben has learned to read, which is really, really cool. Once he started learning, there was no stopping him since he suddenly realized that there was this secret code of letters and words all around him and he ABSOLUTELY CANNOT STAND TO BE LEFT IN THE DARK, so practically overnight he went from slowly sounding out words to reading confidently.
This has opened up a whole new world for him and for me, so the other day when he was bored I came up with an activity that turned out to be extremely successful: A photo scavenger hunt.
©PicklesINK 2012
Ian is an avid photographer so Ben has been interested in cameras practically since day 1. We tried the dedicated el cheapo “kids” cameras but they all have such long shutter lag that there’s no way a young kid can hold the camera still long enough to take a picture that looks like anything.
Ben with kiddy camera.
©PicklesINK 2012
Then he started using my point-and-shoot Olympus digital and took off. He has a really great eye and really enjoys himself with it. These are a couple of his pictures, taken in Quebec last summer (so he was 4).
Sunset over the St. Lawrence by Ben.
©PicklesINK 2012
Grandad on balcony by Ben.
©PicklesINK 2012
Anyway, back to the photo scavenger hunt. Combining Ben’s love of taking pictures with love of figuring things out definitely turned out to be a winner and a grand total of about three minutes elapsed between my giving him the list and his returning with these pictures on my camera (the first two are both #1, something red):
Scavenger hunt results
©PicklesINK 2012
When he came back, he said, “Can you give me another one?” I’ll definitely be bringing this activity out again!
~ karyn