Matai Likes...

Here are some things that it might be helpful to know that Matai particularly enjoys:

• Matai loves to read

Matai can sit for extended periods of time reading his books to himself.  We have a little 'reading nook' in our living room with a small bookshelf where he can choose his own books to read and sit quietly and we find that when we arrive home from somewhere, or after a meal, books are often the first activity he chooses.

• Matai loves photos.

 Matai particularly likes photos of himself and people he knows but he also enjoys books and with photographs of objects and scenes as opposed to cartoons and drawings.  We have created some photo books here at home of events and experiences he has had, and these books have become firm favourites.  He also seeks out the books that have photos of little children in the story.

• Matai enjoys music

Matai loves music.  In particular Matai enjoys DVDs (again with real people) such as 'The Wiggles', 'Hi 5', 'Singing Hands (signing songs) and 'Love to Sing'.  He also enjoys children's action songs and has a favoured binder of preschool songs from his Grandma that we use regularly.  Matai also really enjoys orchestral music, we have found this out along the way, the more dramatic the music the better!

• Matai loves playing with balls

He loves to kick balls around.  He loves to throw the little plastic ballpit balls out of a bag or pool, chase after them, and then throw them all back in again.  Hours of fun.

• Matai likes to use playdough

This is a recent like and probably reflects what he is doing at preschool,

• Matai enjoys using feltpens to draw.

This is a very recent thing.  We have been working on it for a long time with Kath, but only recently has he enjoyed it enough to initiate this activity and stick at it for 5 - 10 minutes.  We have found short, fat Crayola pens work best and we have been working on up and down strokes, side to side strokes and 'round and round' circles.  He gets a lot of enjoyment out of putting the lids on and off and this is also a new skill and great for his small motor building.