Preschool Week 6

 

HABITS

Natalia has been helping me, as usual, with the various chores around the house.  Usually, it's something in the kitchen.  Here, she's rolling up baby sausages in croissants.
Not sure if I mentioned this previously, but she has started to be very independent with her potty routine.  She's been potty "trained" for over a year, since 18 months (ie. no diaper day or night while at home, and only a back-up pull-up on outings).  Around 2.5 yo, we finally got brave and quit using pull-ups all together, with zero accidents in or out of the house in over 3 months.  That said, she's recently taken it upon herself that there's no need to announce her need to go, or to request help or company (she would want books read to her during #2s).  She goes to her potty when she needs to, never says anything about it, and I have to learn to periodically check to see if the potty needs emptying!

Independent play hasn't been terribly succesful this week, we'll refocus again next week.


LANGUAGE ARTS

I've noticed that Natalia has been bringing us books to read at various times of the day, something she didn't really do much before.  She has her favorites that she likes to read over and over until they get old.  Then we rotate them out.  I try to humor her whenever she asks, if I'm not really tied up otherwise, to encourage this.  That said, I'm looking into story-telling as an aspect of literacy that I want to incorporate into our routine, which includes letting her tell the story without me literally reading the words on the page, and/or acting out what's going on in the story (forthcoming).

Reading with Daddy (+ outdoor time!)

MATH

I'm amazed how easily Natalia is picking up counting and actual numbers of things without formal instruction (imagine that!).  She still stumbles over the correct numerals-to-items, but she is very enthusiastic about it, so I am not going to squelch that with instruction!  Usually, she'll point to some group of objects with the correct (or incorrect) number of fingers and say the number out loud (which may or may not correspond to the number of fingers or objects!).  If one of those is correct, I say "that's right", and repeat the correct number.  If neither is correct, I just preface my correction with "silly goose" (a term of endearment she likes to use).  She is choosing counting books as well as bringing up numbers of real world things throughout the day.  For instance, she informed us a few times that we have only one dog.  On walks, she's pointed out how many dogs different neighbors are walking.  These are all self-initiated observations.

Color sorting finger puppets - her initiative

 I was pleased to see some (albeit limited, as usual) interest in blocks.  Above, she decided to pick out all yellow little blocks and put one on each finger.  She picked out all red ones for me to wear on my fingers.


 SCIENCE

The weather got hot and humid again, unfortunately, so we were unable to start daily walks as I had hoped.  But we did find a (dead) butterfly on our walk.  We carried it back home and put it on our rose bush, though we found it on the ground the next day.  We looked it up later to see what kind it was, but I must say that I'm going to have trouble with death-related facts of life when they are staring at me like this.  I teared up thinking about this dead butterfly, but I'm going to blame pregnancy hormones on that!

Found Red Spotted Purple butterfly

 We decided to make one last ditch effort to inspire Natalia to build with blocks, something I keep reading about as a stable in preschool aged kids and how much they love them.  We decided that perhaps if not her, her brother may be into blocks, so it was worth the $13 to get these.  She proved once and for all that an engineer she is not.  She used the blocks as phones to call her imaginary friends and she personified them into mommy and baby pairs, mostly.  Well, we tried.  It did prove that she is very imaginative, if there was any doubt before.

new foam blocks

ARTS & CRAFTS

Not much to report here.  After a couple of requests for dry erase markers so she can write on that side of her board, I've decided to leave them out for her and just need to remember to be checking that she's closing them all the way to prevent them from drying out too quickly.  She isn't using them on any forbidden surfaces, so that's good.  Below she is pointing to the belly button of the pregnant lady's tummy.  (I always ask what she drew, never assume.)

Own initiative: "pani z brzuszkiem" (lady with belly = pregnant lady)

FOREIGN LANGUAGE

I finally have some ASL photos to share!  We were excited to be clocking in some outside time on the hammock in the evening, after a thorough anti-mosquito spray down, when she spotted the crescent moon in the sky.  She proceeded to sign "moon" in its direction - something she learned from one of the Signing Time videos she watches periodically lately.

Signing "moon" when she spotted it in the sky.

Bonus: outside time!

BIRTH PREPARATION

I couldn't think of where exactly this should go, but it definitely deserves to be here, so I thought its own category might be most appropriate.  In preparing for her brother's birth, we have been watching both her birth video and birth videos online.  Last week, she started asking for scissors to "cut the umbilical cord" off all of her stuffed friends, and I figured it was only a matter of time before the pretend play evolved, and here it is.  Her largest stuffed animal, Giffy the giraffe, has been popping out babies left and right yesterday and today.  I have been assisting (by propping Giffy up, providing "pushing noises", and giving the relaxation cues from my HypnoBabies preparation).  There have been big sisters and big brothers, and explanations of why Mommy (Giffy) can't play with them right now (because she has to focus because she has a baby). She starts the birth play by checking the baby's heartbeat with her stethoscope, usually putting the ear of one of the big siblings on the tummy to hear as well.  After a bit of pushing noises (courtesy me), she says she sees the head, and next thing you know, she's putting baby on Giffy's tummy (at this point one of the big siblings magically transforms into the newborn) and covers mom and baby with a blanket.  She assists with nursing, after some time (I asked if it was time several times before she finally agreed), she cuts the cord, and finally, wraps baby up in a blanket.  I am just swelling with pride, and hope she is this calm and reasonable (!) at her brother's birth. :)

"I'm the midwife"

immediate skin-to-skin contact

helping with first nursing

cutting umbilical cord

wrapping up the newborn

OUTINGS

Swimming classes started this week, with Daddy.  The next day, she pulled out her swimsuit from her little hamper and said it wasn't dirty.  Next thing you know, she's wearing it.  Hence, the photos above of her wearing a swimsuit for seemingly no reason.  

Natalia has also indicated that she is prone to cabin fever.  On our way back from an appointment, she asked where we were going and was disappointed to hear "home".  She asked to go to the store or restaurant!  Daddy obliged. We also had a grocery run where she and her dino helped put items in the cart, and a meal out where she noticed at the end the indoor playground and asked to go in the car they had up in the air.

OUTDOOR TIME

We didn't start getting regular good weather yet, like I had hoped, so only the first couple of days did we spend any meaningful time outside.  Natalia has started to decide for herself if she finds it comfortable or too hot to be outside.  She lets Bigos (our dog) out through the deck and goes out to see if we can also go out.  When doing laundry, she wants to go out with me to hang up the clothes on the line, but after the first trip, she realizes how nasty hot it is, and opts not to join me on subsequent trips.  One day, she actually fell asleep on the sofa while I was getting the clothes.  It was naptime, and she said she was going to wait for me.  If only all falling asleep would be that easy!