We have a lovely book of colouring, shape and number exercises which my Mum found in Lidl. Small one adores it, doing her "homework" sitting next to her brother and sister.
I was really annoyed this morning to find this exercise:
 |
That's right... it says, "Draw a line from each of the objects to the child which can best use them". The last one had a boy in swimming clothes and a girl in outdoor clothes. This time, the only clue is that well... the girl is a girl... and the boy is a boy... And to be fair, there is no reason except my own cultural stereotypes that suggests the one on the right is male!
Things like this annoy me on two levels. Firstly, that whoever wrote this book clearly thought that girls can "best use" prams, dolls and mirrors, and that boys can "best use" cars and trains... Secondly, that if you bring your child up to believe that there are no girls and boys toys, just toys that particular girls and boys like to play with, then there are no clues at all to help them decide.
My daughter is a fairly imaginative child, but does like to get her answers "right". In the end, she decided that the girl would like the doll and the train, and the boy would like the pram and the marbles. I think she chose them to go with their clothes, as the rabbit in a red jumper on the next page wanted to play with the car...
