I've got to tell you what a funny kid Liana is. And what an excellent problem solver!!! Liana is not really good at shapes. So one of my shower presents was a "requested" shape sorter. You know, the plastic thing you put over the top of a box, with a hole that fits a circle and a hole that fits a square and a hole that fits a star, etc., etc.

So Liana and I sat on the floor with the little plastic shaped pieces. She took a circle, and tried to fit it in the square. I watched, and allowed her to explore. She was starting to get frustrated, so I directed her to the circle, and she dropped it in successfully. I gave her another circle, and she put it in the circle hole immediately. Then she picked up a triangle and tried to put it in the circle hole. She moved it around and tried different angles and started getting frustrated. I directed her to the hole for the triangle. She had to move it around a bit, but it fit, and went in. Then she picked up a square, and tried to put it in the circle hole. That clearly didn't work. Then she tried the triangle hole. She shifted it and moved it and it still didn't fit.

So she lifted the plastic sorter off the top of the box, put all the circles and squares and triangles and stars directly into the box, and the put the sorter back on top.

Ummm. I guess if the goal was to put the shaped items in the box, that was a much better solution to the problem, huh?