Mental Marginalia’s 2th Annibirthdary Party

MENTAL MARGINALIA, literary NYC’s drunk uncle, turns two this month. To celebrate we’re bringing back a few of our favorite poets and we’ll also have some poorly-thought out crowd-participatory activities. There’s no way anything could go wrong.

Two-year-olds use their motor skills to explore the creative arts. They make sounds by banging and shaking instruments and household items. They enjoy dancing upon request, doing finger plays and acting out chants and songs. Children this age are also gaining control over their voices and will join in singing the refrains of their favorite songs. With art, they enjoy the sensory pleasures of the art materials and focus on the process of creating art, rather than the final product.

The Readers!:

Marina Blitshteyn enjoys using her senses and motor skills to explore the world and is highly curious about unfamiliar objects, events and phenomena. She can solve simple problems with the “trial and error” method and will practice an activity many times to master it. Marina also pretends more during play, using familiar objects and situations to process her daily experiences.

As Russell Dillon plays and completes his daily routines, he learns important math skills. He can use a toy to represent another object, recognize patterns with daily activities, and understand concepts of time like, “tomorrow” and “yesterday.” Russell is just beginning to use logical reasoning to solve everyday problems. He can sort shapes, complete puzzles with eight pieces or less, and stack a set of rings on a peg by size. Russell also understands addition and subtraction with the numbers “one” and “two.”

Physically, Chris Slaughter explores all the ways to travel from here to there, including rolling, crawling, creeping, walking, running, jumping, and climbing. He can also kick a small ball forward, catch a rolled ball, and throw a ball overhand (but with little accuracy). Chris loves finger play activities (e.g., “The Itsy, Bitsy, Spider”), pounding and squeezing clay, shaking rhythm instruments, and scribbling. He can turn doorknobs and unscrew lids and has improved his skills using eating utensils.

Katie Byrum‘s blossoming language skills prompt many “why,” “what” and “how” questions. During the year, Katie has picked up most parts of speech to form more complete sentences. She can understand and say hundreds of words, but familiar adults may need to “translate” for others due to immature pronunciation skills. Katie also understands simple directions and many common phrases used in routine situations.