Cutting Wooden/Velcro Fruit

I had a Cutting Wooden/Velcro Fruit activity on E's shelf a few months ago, and she loved it.  However, she always took the fruit back to her play kitchen, so I stopped trying to keep it on the shelf as an activity.

I decided to work with her on this a little more after I watched her take 2 (raw) sweet potatoes from the pantry and take them to the kitchen table.  She then pushed a chair up to the kitchen shelves, climbed in the chair, and reached for a knife from the knife block while saying "cut, cut."  I think my heart almost stopped when I saw her reaching for (and almost getting) the large knives, and I quickly stepped in and got her off the chair.  I gave her a child's knife and let her pretend to cut the sweet potatoes for a while. 





After that I sat down with her to cut wooden/velcro fruit.  She REALLY loves this activity.  It's hard for her to orient the knife exactly right, and I used to have a craft stick out with her fruit that worked fairly well.  However, now that she is bigger, she only wants a knife.  O has also had fun working with E and showing her the correct way to hold the knife to cut the fruit. 




More than anything, E just loves to sit surrounded by her wooden food.  She loves to pull it apart and put it back together, and she loves trying to cut it.  She was so busy playing independently with her play food that I didn't know what to do with myself.  The house was clean; lunch was ready; O was at school; the computer was broken; and I didn't want to interfere with her independent play.  It was a strange feeling for a busy mama :)