Preschool Week 5

LANGUAGE ARTS
Natalia is enjoying bringing me or Daddy a few of her favorite books to read together.  We may need to be focusing more on bedtime reading, as she has gone potty independently several times without the usual "come read to me" request.  I've stopped rotating her books on a weekly basis.  Instead, if there's books she hasn't touched, I try to bring them to her attention at the start of week two, and keep reading whatever books are holding her current interest.  I'll play it by ear when we rotate.

MATH
Natalia is enjoying counting things and telling us how many of something there is, even if it's not always accurate.  She has been working on measuring, in particular with feeding the dog.  Yesterday, I noticed that she double checked herself the way I usually do.  After scooping a certain amount of dry food into Bigos's bowl, she poured it back into the measuring cup to see if it was indeed just one and not less or more.  Not sure what would've happened if it weren't the right amount, but it was an interesting development. An interesting development in currency awareness included finding a lucky penny (twice!) on our walks and putting it in her horsey-bank.

just added her lucky penny to her bank

I was interested and pleased to find that she liked perusing the "general store" window at the playground, and we began a simple goods-for-currency exchange game where I ordered something, and then asked how much it was, and pretended to give her that much.  I was pleased to see she alread has a rudimentary idea of currency.

SCIENCE
This week, we lucked out with a couple of days of great weather, so we clocked in some serious-for-us outside time.  This included meals on the deck, one of which led to a rainbow discovery.

 




It also included a trip to the playground when there weren't other kids to compete with, and we talked about some of the workers we saw - a man cutting the grass, a man picking up the trash, the sewage truck emptying the porta-potty.  

 

We also observed a toad, ants, mushrooms, tried to follow a bird, smelled roses, and picked various goodies for her treasure chest in her nature corner.

Can you spot the toad?  It just jumped into the grass.

When she saw Daddy working on the sidewalk, she jumped up and exclaimed that she wants to get her shovel, which she promptly did, and began helping.

 

We observed her plant, in particular noting that when she overwatered it, the excess was stored in the base container but was soaked up by the next day. 

A bit of Reggio Emilia inspiration, nature's treasure chest goodies and a mirror.

Bubbles and sidewalk chalk completed our outdoor activities.

FOREIGN LANGUAGE
Natalia continues to surprise me with new signs she picks up whenever she watches the available Signing Time videos.  She uses certain signs along with the oral word in one of her languages often unprompted.

CRAFTS & SENSORY
I've not organized any artsy-crafty activities this past week.  Still need to get some real-world ideas from my mom.  For sensorial, there was water play, both in the tub and in the kitchen sink.

She also often helps me with meal prep, and this week it included mixing flour and egg to make nalesniki (crepes), something she didn't love as it dirtied her hands!  She likes cracking eggs and handing them to me to empty into the bowl.



Also with sensory experience, I'll have to mention that one of our outdoor times was spent barefoot, her request.



PHYSICAL FITNESS
I'm loving it when she participates with me in my daily yoga practice.  She likes to point out when I'm not following the instructor exactly.  Her favorite poses involve a chair.  We've also started dancing, but she doesn't seem quite as excited about it as I had hoped.  She does dance a little with her "sisters" (four main toys - a dino puppet, a plastic triceratops, a stuffed kitty, and a stuffed reindeer).

About to eat an apple found on a walk (under an apple tree).

SOCIALIZING
We had a vet appointment this week, and she was very interested in the injuries of one particular dog that was there, as well as the three small dogs riding in a stroller.  We also met with my midwife.  In the waiting room, there were other kids, older, playing, but she seemed to not be interested in interacting with them much.  Which, if you consider what I'm rereading right now in "Hold Onto Your Kids: Why Parents Need to Matter More than Peers", is nothing to worry about and in fact something to be glad about.

INDEPENDENT PLAY
This is still a work in progress.  Some days are better than others.

HABITS
My biggest challenge right now is getting Natalia to feed herself.  We used the baby-led weaning approach, so her current refusal to feed herself must be a regression in light of becoming a big sister soon.  We have observed her putting her shoes away and some of her toys away, completely unprompted by us, which is wonderful!

"CHARLOTTE MASON PRESCHOOL"
Don't look surprised, but this may not make it onto my permanent list after all.  Yes, we made it outside thanks to weather permitting, but I'm not going to shoot for no 4-6 hours daily.  2 I think is plenty, on most pleasant days.



I'm not sure if tea time is for me, as I'm not a very formal person.  The idea of making something fancy just for the sake of making it fancy, eh.

I'm also having second thoughts about the need to play classical music regularly, or read poetry or the Bible.  There are rhymes in some of the books in her regular book rotation, so I think that is sufficient.  And she hears me reading some of my prayers and a Scripture verse every morning as part of my morning prayer, so she does hear God's word, and it's a bit more contextualized, as she knows I'm talking to Jesus, and when I'm quiet and have my eyes closed, I'm listening to Him.

Natalia has not wanted me to sing much of anything lately.  At night, she insists on stories instead of singing, so there's been no hymns incorporated.  I'm thinking I'll add this to my own regular prayer time, and expose to them that way.

Just like with classical music, I'm having second thoughts about needing to do a proper art study.  I don't know what all the classics are, and is my life really that much less rich because of it?

I still have to talk to my mom about the real-world crafts we can plan.

I'm not much of a game person, so I haven't looked into those yet.

Practically speaking, what I really need to be focusing on right now with Natalia is as follows:
* independent play
* self-feeding
* dealing with apparent start of self-weaning (note I said "dealing with", not necesarily "encouraging" - this warrants its own post sometime soon)
* figuring out some sort of workable sleeping "schedule", to nap or not to nap, and a consistent bedtime/wakeup perhaps? (this is in part related to the self-weaning, so should be covered together)
* preparation for her brother's homebirth
So as you can see, there's no reason to complicate things with premature academics when real-world learning is in order :)