Outside Time
We grab what we can in regards to outside time. We are certainly not outdoorsy people at this point, at least I'm not, but I try to celebrate every occasion we have to be outside.
 |
| Getting a jalapeno plant for daddy's dinner. |
 |
| Observing moss and tree roots. |
 |
| Watching a far off bird soaring. |
 |
| Watering our pine trees. |
 |
| We made a rainbow! |
Language Arts
Tea time!
I've started our version of tea time during breakfast to help encourage Natalia to stay at the table and feed herself, as this has become a daily struggle for us. I collected all the books that have poetry I can see us using later on for copywork and memorization, and I've started reading from them during breakfast. Below, we had breakfast outside, and we read a fantastic book in Polish that was all in rhyme, with wonderful illustrations, and lessons in geography as well as some character formation.
Social Experiences
In addition to her weekly Skype session with my mom, the biggest socializing took place at the end of the week, during Daddy's birthday party. Natalia was a champ, and has confirmed my suspicions that she is an extrovert, meaning she is energized by being around other people. She met a ton of new people, and enjoyed spending time with some friends as well as family.
Nature Study
Growing cucumbers! I bought a little kit at the dollar store and we prepped the soil and I had her push in the seeds and water them. We essentially put it into a mini green house (closed plastic bag) and set it on her windowsill, where it's getting plenty of sunlight. To our surprise, the seeds started to germinate within 48 hours! Now a week later, there are five tall sprouts that she gets a kick out of checking on every day. Here's hoping we are able to keep it going and end up at the harvest :)
Natalia pointed out the number "0" on her daddy's birthday card. Unprompted. We had recently read a numbers book a couple of times that starts with the number zero. I'm loving how these early math skills are just sufacing on their own! She's got a solid hold on the number "1", pointing out she's got one dog, or there's only one cupcake. We have been reading another book on numbers as well where we go through and point out on each page how many of some object are on any given page, which combines repetition of the number from that page.
Art & Music Appreciation
We put in a frame a print out of a lovely painting I found on A Well-Trained Heart, and we talked about it a few times. I'll leave it on a low shelf for another week and then swap out the image. The idea is just to expose her to beauty. We're not doing artist study per se right now.
We practiced singing the happy birthday song in English, Polish, and a little bit Spanish (it's too long still) in preparation for Daddy's birthday, which was on Friday.
Crafts
We've been neglecting these as I've tried to figure out how to be more deliberate about the types of crafts we'll be doing. But this week, we made a birthday card for Daddy!
She was also surprised by a bouquet of carnations from one of the birthday party guests, so we got to do some flower arranging as well!
Independence
We had a rough day early in the week, and upon reflection, I realized that I need to fill Natalia's love bucket before expecting her to feel comfortable playing independently. So rather than trying to get through my to-do list first thing in the morning, I've started reading to her during breakfast (while pre-loading her spoon and encouraging her to feed herself - something she's stopped doing a few months ago, presumably a regression in anticipation of becoming a big sister), and then I give her my attention for about an hour before trying to do anything that would require her to entertain herself.
In related news, she's started wanting to go on the toilet more, and I've had to bring out the toilet seat reducer, something I thought we had another year before I'd need. I still supervise her bc it's a bit flimsy, plus I don't like the idea of giving her free access to the bathroom without supervision for safety reasons (I'm thinking falls, as the cabinets are child-proofed).
ASL
Among the guests at Daddy's birthday party, there were two deaf coworkers. Not only did Natalia get to see the entire office using sign language, but when one of the deaf coworkers came to say hello, she signed that she remembered him! It blew my mind!
Spanish
Natalia got to practice her Spanish with someone other than Daddy. She was able to see the usefulness of the language (just like ASL above) outside of just our home, by speaking Spanish with her aunt, uncle, and several cousins.
.jpg)
