Mom, What Does this Do?

ABOUT THE BOOK
FAMILY ACTIVITIES

text: Maya Meitav | illustrations: Ave'el Basil | translation: Fathiya Khorshed Tabari

“Mom, what does it do? Nothing, it’s just an empty cardboard box. You can put old newspapers in it.” A seemingly routine dialogue between a child and his mother turns in front of our eyes to magic full of creativity and imagination.

Family Activities

“Mom, what does this do?” is a question that children in every home repeat. Our three- to four-year-old child is very curious and is always inquisitive, and this is one of the ways they learn about the world around them.

Video

Dear Parents,

Through the seemingly normal dialogue between the child and the mother, who is busy with housework, the child acquires a lot of information, such as learning the names of objects and their functions in our daily lives. Through this basic knowledge, the child’s imagination employs these objects to build a car with which he plays with his mother.

This innovative play with objects allows the child to develop their imagination and their abilities to solve problems, to plan and to express themselves, and allows them to experiment and make mistakes, to communicate with others, to feel success and joy, to accumulate knowledge and to enhance their awareness of recycling and preserving the environment.

The book shows us how we, as parents, can set up a beneficial mediation with our children in order to support them as they learn about the world around them, their interests and abilities. Children see us as the primary source of information, and they insist on asking us about things they don’t know. Providing them with the correct information, encouraging them to think creatively and “outside the box,” and offering them various materials, contribute to their curiosity, creativity, and to their lifelong education.

Family Activities

On the second reading, we can stop on each object and ask our child: “What do you think we can also do with this object?”
We can look at the drawings on the right side of the book and talk about what the child is doing. What parts of the car does he build in each drawing?
Together, we can look at the drawing of the car on page 21. Are there other parts that we could add to the child’s car? What items can we use from home?
We can keep track of the chores the mother does and talk about them. Are there any other chores that our mother does? If the father was in the story instead of the mother, which tasks would he do?
A home workshop for car-building! Our child will enjoy using recyclable materials available at home to build a car, maybe a plane, a ship, or any other object.
Do we have a lot of plastic bottles and boxes? Maybe they can be made into pots for plants, or musical instruments. Let’s use our child’s imagination and our imagination for this creation!
Enjoy your reading!