Month in Review and March Plans

  February was definitely not the best month in our house. On the positive side, Anna enjoyed the visit from my parents even though it sort of coincided with her testing every boundary. Her behavior has improved once my husband was back from his visit to his family in Germany. The tradition of having both parents “readily available” is clearly extremely important to her. Every time when my husband is not at home during her bedtime she acts very sad even though I am usually in charge of bedtime routine. I introduced some modifications to the time we do spend together with less focus on academics and more play time, but I still can only give myself C since we didn’t do as many fun things as I hoped this month, and our routine was affected by travels and parents not feeling 100%. 

I also felt that we didn’t spend as much time outside as we could have. There is only so many times we can go to the same neighborhood park, and we didn’t go anywhere else except very early in February. Lately my husband started to get his rollerblades and Anna goes out with him on her bike for a race around the block. Hopefully this tradition continues, but for now Time Outside gets C as well.

Due to travels, colds and low energy we did absolutely nothing in the area of organization, so this is definitely an F. I hope we will restart this work in March and catch up. Same F grade applies to my attempts to exercise and eat well. I haven’t exercised much in February and even though my weight didn’t go up, I feel bloated and not energetic. Of course, being sick is not helping matters – the only healthy thing I’ve done recently is sleeping a lot. I certainly hope that better weather and beating this never-ending cold will help me get back on track with my health goals.

One main goal for March is figuring out summer camps for daughter and our vacation schedule. Otherwise I am just hoping to get back on track with my 2011 plan.

I am linking this post to Monthly Goals hosted by Mama Smiles.

What My Child Is Reading – February 26, 2011

We owned this Winnie the Pooh Story Treasury since Anna was born. I like the fact that it has unabridged original stories and original illustrations. We read some of the stories to Anna when she was younger, and it’s exciting to see her being picking up this big book and reading it on her own. She never asks us to read it to her, but she was steadily working through this book during her rest times and is about two thirds through it by now.

If I Were President by Catherine Stier was recommended last week by What Do We Do All Day, and we both really enjoyed it. A lot of other books I looked at focus on the biographies of the Presidents, but this one talks about what President actually does. Illustrations by Diane DiSalvo-Ryan are hilarious and exact at the same time. I liked that the book was true to life stating that not everyone agreed with President and that President doesn’t always agree with Congress (veto right). We had a lot of very interesting and entertaining discussions as Anna tried to wrap her mind around these new concepts. Definitely recommended for 4+.

I saw 365 Penguins by Jean-Luc Fromental on many blogs – book blogs and math blogs alike. As I expected, the math part was over my daughter’s head since she cannot multiply yet, but she really enjoyed playful absurdity of the story. I personally found the eventual explanation of the events in the book a bit ridiculous, especially since Anna asked so many questions about it. We had a long discussions about whether it’s a “true book” or “make-believe” book. She has a hard time making this distinction if the book doesn’t explicitly feature magical characters. She is still asking if we could please get a penguin as a pet.

Anna is reading through Yoko and Friends School Days series by Rosemary Wells, and this was her pick of the week even though Valentine Day has already passed. She enjoys these books a lot since they deal with topics familiar to her and she enjoys replaying the scenarios later. Even though the story line and the text are pretty simple, I like the series because it features strong friendships between a girl and a boy – something that I think is missing quite often from other “life in school” books we read.

My “honorary mention” goes to 10 Things I Can Do to Help My World by Melanie Welsh. The page design is very creative with flaps hiding the end of the sentence and making a reader wanting to see what author wanted them to remember. And the advice is not overwhelming for young children – they can be in charge of turning off the lights or turn the water off while brushing their teeth. One tip that I would love for Anna to adopt is using both sides of paper while drawing or writing.

Week In Review – February 25, 2011

Anna is 4 years and 4 months old. Daughter had a reasonably good week, which cannot be said about me. I finally caught my husband’s cold and felt tired and miserable. Luckily, I started to get sick on Monday night, so we had a nice long weekend and used the break in rainy and cold weather to spend some time outside. I read in the newspaper that it might snow here this weekend, and Anna is super excited at the thought that she might see snow. I still think it’s not going to happen though. Anna’s theme in school was Dinosaurs, one of her ongoing obsessions. At home we started to dig deeper into musical instruments.

Reading. Anna loves books, especially new books. We had “fights” this week when she begged me for new books to read while I was trying to point out to her that she has a big pile of library books that she refuses to return to the library. She still likes books with pictures, but this week she was reading a big book of original Winnie the Pooh stories. Her comprehension level is high even though she tends to “misread” longer unfamiliar words. She picks their meaning from the context or asks me if she cannot make sense of the sentence without knowing an unfamiliar word.

“Music and Movement”. I brought home Mary Poppins DVD from the library, but Anna very categorically refused to watch a movie. Interestingly, she has no interest in movies unless it’s Sid the Science Kid, Reading Rainbow or non-fiction. However, she loved the bonus feature on DVD with some songs from the movie. She danced to them many times and attempted to sing them following subtitles. Even after seeing the scenes from the movie and all the assurances that the movie is “not scary”, she still didn’t want to watch it, and it went back to the library.

Social studies. Behold the future President of the United States. We didn’t focus on long gone Presidents but discussed instead what President does by reading a few books. Now Anna added President to her list of future careers. They also include the first astronaut on Mars and Person of the Year. Looking at the list, she could go for two out of three. She was very concerned to learn that not everyone agrees with what President does – this kind of contradicts her ideas of listening to authority figures.

Practical Life. Anna was very helpful around the house lately. She is very proud to be able to set the table, clear the table or get her own glass of water. She loves helping in the kitchen, especially if we are cooking something sweet like banana bread. Her swimming classes (I consider swimming part of “practical life” and not a sport) are going much better, and I am optimistic that she will be swimming by summer.

We Play Math

It’s been a while since I contributed to Math Links at Joyful Learner. It doesn’t mean that we are not doing math any longer, but I tried to move away from having “math lessons” and to focus more on just math fun for my daughter. Of course it means games. This is a “Carrot Race” game designed by my husband. It has elements of early strategy, since the players can choose to move the board in various direction following the branching path (even backward) to collect as many carrots on the way as possible. There are also “action fields” where the roll of the dice defines the result, so there is still an element of luck. She really enjoys this game. She was also very interested in Connect 4 this week. We tried it earlier, and she was not at all interested after losing once. Now she is really trying to figure out how to win :)

I also copied a few pages out of Math Discoveries with Pattern Blocks book to see if it would reignite Anna’s interest in pattern blocks. It did… to a degree. I think she found all the activities a bit too easy and only wanted to do a couple of pages. However, she treats us to the “picture of the day” on the fridge that she makes by rearranging the same set of pattern blocks. She picked an initial set randomly, but now she treats it almost as a tangram set and doesn’t want to add or remove any pieces.

The only workbook that is favored by my daughter is Can You Find Me? I bought it about 6 months ago, put it on my shelf and now she asks to do it almost every day. I think she likes it because it doesn’t require writing, just comprehending the problem that is presented as a short riddle and picking solution from the list of four possibilities. I highly recommend this book because the problems are engaging and make the student to focus their listening skills. Also, the book has not just math section, but contains science, phonics and social studies riddles as well.

I am also linking this post to We Play hosted by Childhood 101.

Writing Prompts (and Playing a Mailman)

My daughter is a bit of a perfectionist. She won’t do many things until she gains internal confidence in her ability to do it reasonably well. Writing was always one area that she avoided. Lately, however, I noticed the change in her interest level and decided to use the opportunity to introduce writing prompts. I found this printable from a great site waddlee-ah-chaa and printed two copies of the book. Anna  and I worked side-by-side in our books to turn shapes into something else. It was entertaining to see what her mind saw – a circle became “a tic-tac-heart” game, a square became “a person in a mask”, an oval became a cake, and a rectangle turned into “an envelope-house-trailer” (on wheels). Then both books went into “a mail truck” – we have a storage box on wheels that Anna loves to use in her games – and were delivered to papa. At some point I asked Anna to write a letter to me and deliver it. She was working quite hard on hers and asked me not to peek. I think I am going to keep this letter for a while, and I hope that her desire to put her thoughts on paper will start taking off.

I am linking this to Writer’s World hosted by Giggles and Crayons

What My Child Is Reading – February 19, 2011

We didn’t have a particular theme this week, but there were three clear winners this week, two “runner ups” and one “honorary mention”. Here they are:

Here is what Anna had to say, I adore this book. I don’t want it to ever go back to the library. Please buy it for me! Believe me, she rarely gives such glowing review and asks to buy books (unless she is standing in a books store). Mrs Muddle’s Holidays (recommended by Ready, Set, Read) by Laura Nielsen was a huge hit, and the illustrations by Thomas Yezerski work wonderfully with an engaging and warm story. It also got thumbs up from me, but because of the length is probably more suitable for 4+.

One of the questions in Anna’s question box was How much is a million rice? I was excited to see that our library system has added How Big is a Million? by Anne Milbourne to its collection since the last time I checked for this book about 4 months ago. It’s a perfect book for young kids asking big questions. Pipkin goes in search of a million and ends up finding 10 fish, 100 penguins, 1000 snowflakes and a brand new friend. What about a million? There is a big surprise in the end of the book.

My daughter loves non-fiction. She spent many hours pouring over another entry from this Winnie the Pooh series - “Animals”, and I got “Nature” from her from Paperbackswap. She was very excited to get this new book – I love this book! I am so happy I am going to jump and shout with joy! Thank you! Thank you! So now I am treated to new facts about the stinkiest flower on Earth and about comets. I definitely recommend this series for young independent readers who enjoy non-fiction.

The runner ups of the week were How You Got So Smart recommended by Children Grow, Children Explore, Children Learn and a new “Pip book” from Karma Wilson called What’s In the Egg Little Pip? Anna loves Karma Wilson’s stories and illustrations by Jane Chapman are terrific. This is a perfect book for a family going from one child to two, and I thought that it captures the feelings of the formerly single child pretty well.

Honorable mention goes to Courage by Bernard Waber. It’s a great conversation starter on the topic that really fascinates my daughter – what it means to be brave. I liked the variety of scenarios, because they helped my daughter to focus on situations where she displays courage instead of defining herself as a “scaredy cat”. I could even see the impact in her behavior during swimming classes, so I would definitely recommend this book.

Week In Review – February 18, 2011

Anna is 4 years 3 months old. This week was much better in general mood at home. Anna was happy to exchange Valentines with her school friends and was delighted with her new pile of sweets (neighbors contributed to this pile too!). I am trying something new at home – doing one short joint activity in the late afternoon after I get home from work and leaving the rest of the evening for free play and helping around the house. We were finishing up with Birds at home, and Anna’s school unit was on Five Senses. The highlight of the week was that she actually “won a contest” in the swim class by staying under water longest – this girl pushes  herself so much farther in the contest or a game than she does on her own accord.

Math. Some of our “short joint projects” were games with various manipulatives. Anna is a lot more interested lately in actually following instructions and creating something by looking at a sample, so she had fun playing with her mosaic set (I got this set during my last trip to Israel). We also played with pattern blocks and, of course, with her magna tiles. She commented casually to me while building with her pattern blocks how she cannot make a square with triangles here, but she can make squares with “special triangles” from her magna tiles set.

Literacy. Papa took Anna to the “puppetry workshop” in the library, and she built a sock puppet. And if you give a Mouse a puppet, she will want to put a puppet show, so our puppet theater came into rotation again. Anna’s favorite “play” is the one that her papa plays for her sometimes – it involves animals falling in the hole in front of the house, because they are too busy talking to an audience.

Fine Motor Skills. Most fine motor skills activities were “accidental”. Anna always has access to her pens, notebooks, some workbooks, etc. She works in them when she wants, and lately she is more interested in tracing and writing. She is not interested in coloring and drawing and would rather read or build in her free time than draw. We also did some Valentine crafting at home, but I really had to nag her to complete her Valentines. I am glad they are over!

Play. There was a lot of free play in the house this week. Anna is usually not into dolls, but she was all over her doll box when I suggested pretending that she is a babysitter. Apparently, this particular doll was suffering from never-ending diarrhea and then developed chicken pox.  Another popular game this week was going on a trip in a laundry basket.
Favorite quote of the week: Those things that never end… like a number line or space… Do they have a beginning? Where?

To Push or Not To Push – Part 2

Thank you to everyone who commented on my post from last week – To Push or Not To Push. Life interfered, and I wasn’t able to answer all commenters individually (by the way, it helps to have your email enabled in Blogger profile settings). I especially appreciated comments from experienced parents of multiple children who helped me put my thoughts in perspective. I am the one who knows my child more than anyone else in the world (in Anna’s words, you know too much about me, mama!) and it’s up to me to listen to both her and my own gut instinct. Thinking over the answers also made me understand that she definitely doesn’t need more pushing in the areas where I’ve been pushing – in academics. I need to get real. We only have 1-2 hours a day together during my work week (I don’t count an insanely long and convoluted ritual that is our dinner-bath-books-bedtime routine), and it’s a little silly of me to think that I can do what homeschoolers are doing with their kids in this short period when both of us are often not at their best. What my daughter really needs, however, is habit training, especially in the area of taking care of her belongings and picking up after herself. This is where I have to continue to push and nag and praise until we see progress. What she also needs sometimes is some help in getting her imagination flowing and a playmate. She still loves to have us as her playmates, and even though I’d rather have her play with peers I got to realize lately that I’ve been pushing her to play on her own too much. This early childhood is gone in a blink of an eye, and I’d rather her remember it as time of fun and closeness with her parents than time of drills and power struggles.

How Do Birds Find Their Way?

I stumbled upon How Do Birds Find Their Way? in the library while getting some books to supplement Anna’s Birds theme in school. We read it together and found a lot of interesting facts about how birds’ migration patterns and science behind it. This book is also good for geography, since it talks about finding your way using the Sun, the North Star and the compass. It also shows maps with migration routes for some of the birds.

The natural extension of the book is to go outside, discuss sun position in the sky and try to find north with the compass. I don’t expect Anna to really “get” compass reading just yet, but we did learn a few things:

1. 1. Compass needle always points in the same direction regardless of where you are facing or whether you are inside or outside.
2. 2. The sun rises in the east and sets in the west. We were outside in late afternoon, so it was easy to find west.

Then she was happily “migrating” from the kitchen to the living room. Eventually she settled down to lay an egg. You cannot see it, but she is sitting on an Easter Egg with a “chick” (a button) inside. As always, her game needed to include food, so she had a lot of food “prepared for a long journey north”.

 

We also built “Lego birds” – I built one first, and Anna built an exact twin by looking at mine. They ended up being “rescue birds” – they were rescuing Lego people who were “falling into water” and bringing them on Lego ship. By the way, this Lego ship is a vintage piece that belonged to Anna’s papa.

I will hit many “linkies” with one post and link my post to Science Sunday hosted by Adventures in Mommydom, The Play Academy at Nature’s Store, We Play at Childhood 101. Read, Explore, Learn at JDaniels4’s Mom and History/Geography Exchange at Children Grow, Children Explore, Children Learn.

What My Child Is Reading – February 12, 2012

Late last week I brought Anna one of Arthur books by Marc Brown home from the library. She loved them a lot when she was younger, and keeps reading the few that we own. On my next library visit she asked me to bring her “Arthur books and space books”. She is still very interested in all things space-related. However, only one of clear winners of the week was related to space. Here they are:

I was lucky to stumble upon this gorgeous book in the library while it was still so new. Out of Sight by Pittau and Gervais is a flap book but also so much more! The animals are hiding behind the flaps that display their shape, the patterns of their skin, show only their feet or their ears. Then each flap contains a fascinating and little known fact about the animal, for example, the difference between jaguars and leopards. Anna absolutely loves the book and also learned quite a lot of new animals (for example, shrew and okapi) from it. I am very motivated to check out other titles by this pair of authors.

I was saving Seeds! Seeds! Seeds! by Nancy Elisabeth Wallace for a special “class outside”, but Anna found it and informed me that she loved it so much I read it twice. It’s a wonderful book that combines art, science and a good story. Interestingly, Anna didn’t care much about suggested art projects (seed collection, bean mosaic), but was very interested in how the seed grows and suggested to plant something (actually, she wanted to plant a melon). And we will… soon. March is a great time to read this book since that’s when the story takes place.

A Village Full of Valentines by James Stevenson was recommended last week by What Do We Do All Day, and, ironically, it was the only fiction book left in the library for Valentine’s Day. Anna quite enjoyed the story even though I don’t think she quite got the humor in some of the stories (it’s a book with small stories that all tie together in the last story). I, on the other hand, quite enjoyed subtle messages and situations described in the book.

Our new space book this week was If You Decide to Go to the Moon by Faith Mcnulty. I read it to Anna first, and then she added it to the ever growing piles of her favorites. One word of warning – this story is long with no good place to stop. Illustrations by Steven Kellogg are whimsical and realistic at the same time. I liked how the book combines fantasy (a boy going to the Moon) and reality (what he would feel in space and on the Moon). It really worked well for Anna’s comprehension level and for her desire to read books about “things that really happened”.

I gave honorary mention to Mattland last week and said that Anna didn’t seem interested in the book. Well, this week she definitely was, and I’ve seen her reading it and looking at the pictures many times. It clearly “grew on her”, so check it out when you get a chance.