Ethical, sustainable building!

Down in Dorset lives a man called Kev Potts, otherwise known as The Bearded Balancer. Kev has become known for his incredible stone-balancing abilities. This is a very addictive hobby which requires a sense of the size and weight of objects, and the patience to get them to perfectly balance together. Your toddler is busy learning all about how to predict, and check, the size and shape of the things they play with – see if you notice them doing experiments or moving objects in order to test their ideas. 

Kev spends time on beaches, in streams, or anywhere where there are stones. His goal is to create one-of-a-kind sculptures out of the stones he discovers in each location. When the stacks are finished, Kev leaves them so that onlookers can admire them. The stones eventually return to nature. If you’d like to see more of his work, or share it with your toddler to spark some creative building, you can find him on Facebook, Instagram or Flickr.  

Next time you’re in a place with lots of stones, stop and spend some time balancing, building, and creating. You might find you enjoy the feeling of focusing on a goal, and the joy when it all works out.  

Your toddler might be more interested in using their growing understanding of relative size to compare the stones, or other objects. They may choose to build towers which go from biggest to smallest, or line them up in size order.  

By doing this they’re showing you how much knowledge about size and weight they have been learning – and that they're now able to think about what it means when comparing objects.