Harry's Blog

While we're no fans of the continuum method and its mad fixation with toddlers learning to chop cucumber our twins have spent the afternoon playing with knives.

Wifey bought them some toy fruit and veg to go with their new play kitchen and the plastic food is quite interesting. It comes complete with a plastic knife. And the fruit itself splits down the middle and is only held together by Velcro.

Patrick took no time at all learning to chop the fruit and veg in half using the plastic knife. Our daughter on the other hand struggled quite a bit. Despite being able to feed herself and being very capable in many areas her skills with her hands to lag behind Pat.

I wonder if it's a gender issue. Are boys better at this kind of thing at the age of two? Pat is brilliant with jigsaws, shape sorters, puzzles and putting his train track together. He is rather a cry baby though. His sister is a much tougher cookie, yet she's rubbish at jigsaws and the like - she tries to complete them but watching her it's clearly she has no sense at all what to do. Both seem the same level of intelligence - so there's something else going on.

Of course this could just be the difference between two children. It's hardly a representative sample. But I wonder what your experience is with the differences between little boys and girls. Are boys particularly good with their hands at the age of two compared to girls? Are girls emotionally tougher than little boys? Answers as usual on a postcard...