Gymnastics

This fall I decided to enroll Everly in the rec centre "kindergym".  Which is basically a really laid back gymnastics class.  She loved it so much I decided to enroll her in a "real" class at a gymnastics club.  The rec centre class is pretty much a free for all.  The kids do what they like and play together.  I love that about it.  The club class is very structured and the children must do a warm up together and then do different circuits.

The first few times I took her to the club class she really didn't listen at all, and I had to constantly keep her on track, while keeping it all fun.  On Monday we had our last class and it was so amazing to see the difference.  She didn't take her eyes off the instructor and did the whole warm up with only one reminder (to do bunny hops instead of runs).  She was just so fully engaged.  

She gets so excited for both classes now and it is amazing to see what she is able to do.  She is so coordinated - much more so then many of my 4 year old students.  It will be interesting to see if she is just an early bloomer or if she will always be so coordinated.  She can do the beam all by herself and she does it quite quickly.  Her forward rolls are easy for her now.  I am just encouraging her to stand up right after, because that does take some strength on her part.  On the trampoline she is starting to be able to land on her bum and back on her feet, which I don't think they even bother teaching for another year or two.  

She is always asking about taking ballet lessons.  We are holding off on those until next year because for one there isn't a convenient class with a good teacher, and two I just don't think she is ready to follow that much structure.  We dance at home most days, and for now that is enough. 

I never thought I would put my kids into ballet, but Everly is totally taken with it.  I also get almost free classes at the studio's I teach at, and with money being tight it means she gets to do something she loves without breaking the bank.

I think it is really important for kids to develop their coordination, strength and flexibility right from the start.  Enjoying being active is really important to me and I hope both my kids find something that they love participating in.  That way they are more likely to want to stay active as adults.

Baby #2

Well... I was intending on blogging after our busy summer but then I got PREGNANT!!  Everly will be a big sister end of May/ early June just after she turns 3.  I am really excited... and nervous.

It has been extremely rough since I first found out I was pregnant.  First the morning sickness hit me before I even got my BFP, then a few weeks later I had the flu for two weeks, and just when I started to feel rested again I got bronchitis, which turned into the most horrible sinus infection that I finally seem to over.  All the time this was going on Everly has been getting her 2 year molars and waking up SCREAMING, and inconsolable at night.  I feel like I have barely had a chance to think much about this pregnancy or enjoy it.  I am 16 weeks and still not showing at all so I don't have a bump or movement to make it feel real.

I am hoping that come January everything settles down and we can get back into some state or normalcy and work on preparing Everly and our home for our new arrival.  I would really like to nightwean Everly and have her sleeping in her own bed.  I want to make things as easy as possible on us all when the baby arrives.

I have a great midwife and I am hoping DH will agree to a homebirth.  He has been pretty against it but the midwife is very supportive and I hope with her help I can get him on board.

"Reading"

I have been avoiding my blog because I feel pressure for it to be interesting, have pictures etc.  I have decided I am just going to blog for me and not worry about what I am saying or if it is a "good" blog.

Everly is simply blossoming and I am realizing that I really have to start talking to her and treating her differently.  She seems to understand SO much and I think I have been underestimating her.

We dropped the doing a theme for each week and I have just been really mindful of using language that will help her learn.  For example I try to constantly mention colours, how things work, what season it is etc.  This approach is working beautifully.  The week we did the letter A and the colour green she learned orange, and purple, and started recognizing several letters that did not include A.  Thus the end to any sort of structured approach.

During that week I noticed that she is able to match letters with ease.  So I thought I would just see if she could match words.  I wrote Mommy, Daddy, Everly and Nanny (her grandma) each on 2 pieces of paper.  I told her what they said and she matched them with ease.  Of course I was really proud and she seemed to enjoy it so we played word matching with other words.  The next time we did it, she didn't want to match... she wanted to "read" all the words to me.  I couldn't believe that she could remember all the words!!  She doesn't even recognize all the letters of the alphabet.  She does have a harder time deciphering words that start with the same letter but she can do it with a bit of thought.

For my own record she can now recognize:

1. Nanny
   
2. Mommy
   
3. Daddy
   
4. Everly
   
5. Amelia
   
6. Siri
   
7. Kathy
   
8. Faraz
   
9. Grampy
   
10. Nanny
    
11. Batman
12. Bum Bum (sometimes)
13. Ballet (sometimes)
14. Baby (sometimes)
15. Madelyn

She now brings me blank cue cards and asks me to write words on them.  I write whatever she wants (that is where Bum Bum) came from. :P  Then we decorate them with stickers and she writes on them and finally she will cut them all up. 

I guess for now I will just keep writing words on cue cards for her if she wants, and I also thought she might benefit from my pointing out environmental text, like STOP on stop signs etc.

I found a leap frog Fridge Phonics and Word Whammer for $20 on craigslist.  I am going to pick them up tomorrow.  I thought it might help her learn the sounds of the letters, in a way that is fun.

This has also renewed my interest in Starfall which I think I will let her do a few times a week.

I don't want to be some pushy mom, but at the same time I want to make sure I am creating a rich environment for her.  I know I always mention this but it is something I am always worrying about.

OPPS! I uploaded the wrong video.. and after waiting 15 minutes it is going to stay right here. 

Here she is dancing.  She is totally obsessed.

Books

I was reading through some of the older blog posts on Chasing Cheerios the other day, and she mentioned reading 30-40 books to "O" everyday.  Here I was pleased that I read to Pooks everyday, and sometimes 10+ books.  Anyways it got me inspired to really up the amount of books I read to Pookers daily.  It has been a week and it was REALLY renewed her interest in books.  She is asking me to read to her more and when we do read she wants MORE! 

Yesterday we did about 25.  Some of the stories were quite long and others were short and sweet.  I am trying to make a goal of sitting down and reading 5 at a time.  I am really enjoying the calmness that comes from reading with her.  There are a lot of frustrations when you are two and this really gives us a chance to just chill out and spend quality time together.

Here are some of the books we like reading:

All the Frog and Toad books

Angelina Ballerina (I don't care for them but she loves them)

Grumpy Bird

Kids research books on animals - right now Alligators.

Bill & Pete Books

Guess How Much I Love You

Anything by Sandra Boynton

Beatrix Potter books

Nursery Rhymes

Now we are reading so much more we are going to have to get more books from the library or I will go crazy with all the repetition.  We got a great fable book from the library and she has really enjoyed that. 

Speak of the devil... Pookers is calling.

Best Friends

 Something that can't be measured or compared, is social confidence (for lack of a better term).  This is really on my radar because I was a fairly shy kid, who became a horribly shy and anxious pre-teen.  I always knew I wanted to do everything I could to enable my children to be as outgoing as they could be and have the confidence to be who they really are.

I just love watching Everly now when we go out and about.  She is incredibly outgoing and charismatic (she takes after her Dad!).  She seems to be able to win adults and children over in minutes.   We have a 4 year old who lives across the path from us.  We live in a townhouse where all the cars are parked underground.  Everly and A have become best friends.  When I watch them play and interact together it just amazes me how much Everly keeps up with her friend.  Not in terms of what she knows, but in terms of how to interact with another person.  

She might not be able to recite her ABC's and 123's, or know all her colours... but watching her with other people reminds me that there is so much more to learn  than just "school skills".    

Natural Consequences

I have recently seen too great examples of how natural consequences work.

1./  Everly was painting.  Which turned into Everly painting her hands.  I decided to tidy up the kitchen and had my back to her.  When I turned around there she was COVERED in paint all over her face.  Honestly I didn't really care that much.  At the same time it isn't something I want to encourage.  I grabbed my camera, filmed and took a couple pictures and fairly calmly took her upstairs to hose her down.  She did NOT appreciate having her faced washed.  After we talked about how if you paint your face it will mean having a shower, and getting water all over your face.  Today she tried just painting her nose, and I reminded her about how we would have to clean her face and she stopped.

2./ Everly and a friend got into some cream.  I found them with some on their bodies and faces.  They friend seemed shocked that I didn't get angry.  As I was trying to decide how to deal with the situation, Everly got some cream in her eye.  I was able to point out that that was one reason it is not a good idea to play with cream without a parent around.  They agreed and gave me the jar they had hidden.

The one thing that I am having a hard time with now is when I am around other parents.  Mostly my neighbour who's daughter is 4.  First of all her daughter is older so she does have higher expectations, but she also seems to have many more rules then we do in general.  Their home isn't close to as kid friendly as ours is, so there are a lot of rules to protect furniture and carpets.  The thing is sometimes I start feeling like I am too permissive when I spend a lot of time with them.  I know she is sometimes surprised with the things I don't worry about.  For example I let Everly play with water in her kitchen.  Which usually means water will get on our floor, area rug and even couch.  Not enough to cause alarm or anything.  A few times she seemed shocked that I didn't seem to care. 

I let Everly paint her hands, her rubber frog and a polly pocket.  It just doesn't seem like a big deal to me.  If she wants to do that that is fine.  I won't let her paint her cloth dolls obviously.  And when she is painting she has to stay in her chair.  I guess I just have to remind myself I do set boundaries... I just like to give Pooks lots of room to be a creative kid.

Homeschool Preschool

Generally I do believe that unschooling works.  I love reading unschooling blogs and any info I can find.  I also feel that there is no need for preschool... however I have decided to do a very informal "preschool" with Pookie.  Now that September is just around the corner we can get back to having a more scheduled week.  

So here is my plan (mostly inspired by www.letteroftheweek.com):

Each week I will make a poster board with a letter, colour or shape and a theme.  This week I chose the letter A, the colour green and alligators.  I got some alligator books out of the library - both children's fiction and a couple of children's reference books.  I have printed some letter A colouring pages and I printed a picture with all sorts of green objects.  

So my plan is to point out the colour green whenever I can, dress her in green and give her some green things to eat.  I also thought we could do a green photoshoot a la "Chasing Cheerios".

We have read some of the alligator books, and my next thing is for us to go on a 'gator scavenger hunt to find all the ones we have in our house.  "Alligator Pie" will also be our song/ poem of choice for the week.

I have a few letter games we will do (if she is interested), and I will let her do the letter A on starfall.

Also each week I am hoping to come up with a gross motor skill, fine motor and montessori inspired activity.   I have a one-to-one correspondence activity for her this week.   I am also going to offer the scissors daily this week, and I got her a $2 golf club and ball to play with.

All of this is meant to be fun.  It gives us something to do and hopefully DD will enjoy her "school".   I am also hoping it will make it easier if we were to actually HS... but that is a whole other topic!

I am going to keep a notebook and try to fill it out each day and make note of what we did in each "subject" area.   Already I noticed a change in how I think when Pooks and I interact.  For example today she was eating some raisin and I would give her 1, 2 or 3 at a time and ask her how many their were.  She really enjoyed counting them and eating them up.  DH and I are also back to 'hugging for the count of 10'.  We especially love this one because we get an extra long hug out of her!!