Tuesday, April 27, 2004
Happy 2nd Birthday!
Saturday was DS1's 2nd birthday. We got him a wagon (to share with DS2) a 3-CD set of Toddler games (Pooh, Mickey, Roly Poly Olie), and a puzzle of his name. We had cupcakes with dinner but he didn't quite "get" blowing out the candles. On Sunday we had a family dinner at Ryan's (a restaurant). Almost everyone was there. One SIL and 2 of her kids didn't make it, but my brother who works out of town waited until after the dinner / party to return. DS1 got several nice presents from his aunts, uncles, and cousins. He got money from Papa (my dad), and got an outfit and 2 books from Grandma & Grandpa (DH's parents). He also got 2 shirts from his daycare teacher.
Speaking of daycare. He will be moving up to the 2-3 year old room soon. They normally do it within a week of the child's 2nd birthday. However, the teacher is going to be changing rooms at the end the semester (mid-May), so DS1 and a couple of other kids in the other toddler room will wait and move together after the new summer teacher is selected. I am really glad about that, because I was concerned that DS1 would get moved to the new room, just start to get used to things, then have the teacher leave.
DS1 is doing so many things now. He is talking a lot, and other people can understand him a lot, too, not just Mom and Dad. :-) He is climbing stairs holding onto the railing or our hand (if the railing is too high). Sometimes he even steps directly to the next step (L-step R-next step) instead of both feet onto the same one (L-step R-same step L-next step). He is a whiz at puzzles, easily doing those with individual spots for the pieces and able to do "toddler / 2-4 yr" puzzles with 8-12 pieces. He can do puzzles where the shapes go along with parts of the picture, and he can do simple ones where the pieces are shaped like "normal" puzzle pieces.
Saturday was DS1's 2nd birthday. We got him a wagon (to share with DS2) a 3-CD set of Toddler games (Pooh, Mickey, Roly Poly Olie), and a puzzle of his name. We had cupcakes with dinner but he didn't quite "get" blowing out the candles. On Sunday we had a family dinner at Ryan's (a restaurant). Almost everyone was there. One SIL and 2 of her kids didn't make it, but my brother who works out of town waited until after the dinner / party to return. DS1 got several nice presents from his aunts, uncles, and cousins. He got money from Papa (my dad), and got an outfit and 2 books from Grandma & Grandpa (DH's parents). He also got 2 shirts from his daycare teacher.
Speaking of daycare. He will be moving up to the 2-3 year old room soon. They normally do it within a week of the child's 2nd birthday. However, the teacher is going to be changing rooms at the end the semester (mid-May), so DS1 and a couple of other kids in the other toddler room will wait and move together after the new summer teacher is selected. I am really glad about that, because I was concerned that DS1 would get moved to the new room, just start to get used to things, then have the teacher leave.
DS1 is doing so many things now. He is talking a lot, and other people can understand him a lot, too, not just Mom and Dad. :-) He is climbing stairs holding onto the railing or our hand (if the railing is too high). Sometimes he even steps directly to the next step (L-step R-next step) instead of both feet onto the same one (L-step R-same step L-next step). He is a whiz at puzzles, easily doing those with individual spots for the pieces and able to do "toddler / 2-4 yr" puzzles with 8-12 pieces. He can do puzzles where the shapes go along with parts of the picture, and he can do simple ones where the pieces are shaped like "normal" puzzle pieces.
Thursday, April 01, 2004
Au Pair in America - My niece is considering going to college where I work. Since she lives out of the county, she must either live in the dorms or with a relative. Even though I recommend the dorms, we have offered to let her live with us. This webpage has some Au Pair tips that might be relevant to us, even though she isn't going to be doing that much child care and isn't from another country.
Wednesday, March 31, 2004
Mothering Magazine -- Anger Management for Moms: "Let's face it, most stuff with kids is small stuff." -- This line is a good one. Yesterday evening, while DS2 was asleep and DH had just left for several hours, I put DS1's silverware in the dishwasher after dinner. He saw me do it. He didn't want me to close the dishwasher. I closed it anyway and he started crying and saying "open". After a couple of minutes of talking to him and trying to distract him, I just wondered, "why not open?" So I opened the dishwasher instead. He pulled out some silverware, and we talked about dishes, silverware, and even counted some. After a couple of minutes, he put the silverware back (after I asked him to), then he pushed the rolling drawer back in (without being asked), and closed the dishwasher. I'm glad I recognized that a couple of minutes playing with dirty dishes was better than several minutes of crying and having both of us going into the rest of the evening in a bad mood.
Monday, March 29, 2004
Upperroom | Devotional - God's Waves - a nice reminder of how children and parents can be reminder of God's interaction with humans.
Friday, March 26, 2004
Tuesday, March 23, 2004
Strewing Their Paths -- Today have been a very unworking day. I missed 2 hours, separately for dropping off my car for some recall work, then picking it up again. I've been reading a lot. I realized that I still learn best in the unschooling way. I've been reading like crazy about something that interests me right now, but have barely looked at a book that I "need" to read for work.
I've even thought of offering to homeschool my sister's kids (one is 3 1/2 now & the other is due this week). I know that 4 kids would normally be "a handful" if the adult was trying to get them to do the same thing at the same time. But in unschooling, that wouldn't be necessary at all. I'm even starting to try to come up with a catchy sounding name for our unaccredited private school (which is what Kansas homeschoolers have to be).
I've even thought of offering to homeschool my sister's kids (one is 3 1/2 now & the other is due this week). I know that 4 kids would normally be "a handful" if the adult was trying to get them to do the same thing at the same time. But in unschooling, that wouldn't be necessary at all. I'm even starting to try to come up with a catchy sounding name for our unaccredited private school (which is what Kansas homeschoolers have to be).
Friday, March 19, 2004
Exploration Place
DS1's daycare class went to a children's museum / activity center called Exploration Place on a field trip this morning. I went too. It was great fun! I tried not to point him toward or away from anything in particular. He loved climbing up a spiral staircase (about 2 floors worth) and checking out what was up there. I did carry him down, though, because they were metal and pretty tall, and very narrow at the center of the spiral. Since I didn't have a watch to know when our hour ("meet back here in an hour") was up, I did get a little nervous and we went looking for the others when all but 1 of the other kids and adults were no longer in sight. He kept saying "Wow! Wow! Wow!" when we got to the airplane / flight room. He also did very well taking turns with another boy (older, and not from our daycare) riding the 10 foot long "roller coaster". It was a great morning!
DS1's daycare class went to a children's museum / activity center called Exploration Place on a field trip this morning. I went too. It was great fun! I tried not to point him toward or away from anything in particular. He loved climbing up a spiral staircase (about 2 floors worth) and checking out what was up there. I did carry him down, though, because they were metal and pretty tall, and very narrow at the center of the spiral. Since I didn't have a watch to know when our hour ("meet back here in an hour") was up, I did get a little nervous and we went looking for the others when all but 1 of the other kids and adults were no longer in sight. He kept saying "Wow! Wow! Wow!" when we got to the airplane / flight room. He also did very well taking turns with another boy (older, and not from our daycare) riding the 10 foot long "roller coaster". It was a great morning!
Thursday, March 18, 2004
Unschooling the Gifted Child: Defining the Challenge from Within -- the definitions and information here may be very important for our family soon.
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