Another Random Update

Kayla's been doing pretty well. We're on week 12 of the letteroftheweek.com preparatory curriculum, and she's picked up on quite a bit. She's very successfully added several words to her vocabulary (vines, claws, duckling, dough, etc.) and she can identify new things like lighthouses and crescent moons. She also knows the difference between a full and crescent moon. We're beginning to have some issues learning numbers- we're slow to pick up 11 and 12, and although she can usually count up to 14 if she's in the mood, sometimes she struggles with identifying the numbers by themselves or remembering what they're called (for example, she'll say 'eleventeen' instead of 'eleven'). As far as letter sounds go, she can't care less. She identifies the letters just fine, but so far we're not connected them to specific sounds. Gotta keep working on it.

I made the corner of the bottom of the stairs Kayla's reading nook. Kylie kept eating all Kayla's paperback books, so I moved them up onto the landing and moved the kitchen set down where the books were. I put her little soft chair up there and a corkboard above it where I hang the letter of the week and pictures of things that start with that letter. I'll get pictures soon.

Kylie's parents are very happy about the preschool thing... they look forward to seeing how Kylie does picking up on information. I'm glad I'm surrounded by so much positive feedback!

In Defense of Child Harnesses

Ok, I just want to go ahead and get this off my chest. I have used a child harness. There, I said it. I used to be one of those judgmental people who looked at parents using those leashes on their kids and shake my head in disbelief. In my naive state of mind I questioned why they couldn't just hold their children's hands, or better yet- teach their children to stay put and listen to them.

Then I had Kayla, and it threw my worldview upside-down. Here was this little toddler who was on the go from the moment she was born. Literally, almost, because she was rolling onto her side at 3 days old. THREE DAYS. Not to mention that while in utero I felt as though my internal organs were being pulverized and that she'd burst from my stomach with one more kick. And since those first movements I have had the challenge of my life attempting to control this little, energetic, adventurous, willful child. Everything that Kayla wants, she will fight to get. There is very little compromise in any toddler, but she's even more determined than than the average two year old.

So, when it came to be that she fought us when being put in the stroller and just wanted to walk, we appeased her. After all, it's not a bad thing to encourage a kid to learn to walk on their own- who wants to be pushing a stroller around any longer than they need to, right? Then we quickly learned that not only did she want to walk, but she wanted to walk without holding our hands. And this confrontation usually went the same way every time: we let her begin walking, and ask for her hand. She acts as though we never spoke and continues on her way. We reach down, grab her hand, and tell her she needs to let us hold her hand. She rips her hand away, and continues walking. We reach down and grab it again, more firmly, and she pulls back, even more determined, and beginning to get pissed off now. We stop her completely in her tracks and crouch down at her level, trying to calmly tell her that there's no option- she has to stay with us and hold our hand. She then throws herself on the floor and refuses to move, all the while screaming loudly and causing a scene. We attempt to pick her up and she kicks wildly, screaming, writhing out of our arms. Repeat this little episode until we either leave completely or continue on our way with her melting down in public and causing angry people to look to us as though we are ruining their day. (Yes, because listening to a screaming kid for 10 minutes is MUCH worse than dealing with the screaming child all day long. I'm trying to parent a child, here, teach her right from wrong, mold a human being. Back the hell off you selfish jerks.)

I've listened to people who are against the harnesses speak as though because their children cooperated and learned to hold still and behave, that all children OBVIOUSLY should. It's wonderful for them that their kids held their hand and didn't run, but to assume that all children are as willing to be confined as their own, or that parents are just bad parents because their children don't cooperate is just cruel and unrealistic. Parents of runners understand each other, and parents who've never had one of these kids doesn't. It's basically that simple. If you are of the belief that all kids are passive and controllable as long as you're a good enough parent, then you're ignorant. My daughter's stubborn streak isn't a result of our bad parenting... if anything... it's genetically passed own from my husband. But it doesn't reflect that I'm doing something wrong and it was because of all the condescending onlookers that it took me a long time to realize that.

I've also seen people argue that leashing your child is degrading because they're not a dog. Yes, because toddlers and dogs are REALLY so different. Let's evaluate for a moment. A dog and a toddler are both impulsive, curious, free-spirited creatures with little to no understanding of how the world actually works. Neither would understand impending dangers such as an oncoming car in the road, or a fall that could kill them, or a stranger with intent to take or hurt them. If either got lost, they would both wander aimlessly until someone found them and helped them or they were harmed or killed. Neither knows to stay put wherever they are and wait for help, or to find 'someone in a uniform, like a police officer, or someone who works here' or any other responsible adult. And yes, many dogs and toddlers actually COULD be trained to stay right next to their caregivers without wandering away. Many can not. And even the most well-trained dog or toddler can see something that attracts their attention enough to send them flying without notice, because shiny things are distracting sometimes, ya know? Perhaps most importantly, dogs and toddlers both have people who love them and they trust to look out for them, people who are adults and know better than they do. That's why in most cases, dog owners do leash their dogs while out in public. Not because they're just 'treating them like dogs' but because they know that dogs need to be kept safe sometimes. Parents of harnessed toddlers aren't 'treating their kids like dogs,' either. They're realizing that their kids, while human beings, aren't capable of thinking like full-grown humans yet. They're toddlers. By nature they're inquisitive, impulsive, self-centered, and naive. If you add willful, high-energy and adventurous to the mix, then you've got a huge potential for harm coming to that kid. Or in the very least, for losing that child because you needed to look away for a moment.

It's been said before, but I'll say it again. It really does only take ONE moment. I don't know any person who can stare at their child every second they're out in public. I mean, you'd be walking into walls. The best, most attentive of parents still have to watch where they're going, right?

I was originally so irritated with the judgments of these people who hate the harnesses. But then I realized that it is those same people who would be shooting looks of disgust at the parents who don't leash their children and they're running wild. I mean, sometimes it's the parents neglect, yes, but I've also been that person struggling to control my daughter and keep her still in public, getting those looks myself. They're also the same people who would probably automatically blame a lost child on a neglectful parent. So in the eyes of these people, parents like me- parents with willful, spirited, high-energy, determined toddlers who will fight you every step of the way to get what they want- we can't win. So I'm tempted to admit that I'm actually jealous of them. How wonderful it must be to be the perfect parent, with perfect, passive, well-behaved children!

But then I realize that it's my daughter who will be CEO of the company that won't even hire their children, and I don't feel so badly any more.

Articles

http://www.education.com/reference/article/Ref_Socialization/

http://media.johnwiley.com.au/product_data/excerpt/45/04717481/0471748145.pdf

March 2011

We are well into our 8th week of the letteroftheweek.com curriculum. I've decided that for some of these vocabulary words, I'll just improvise. I can't figure out how to teach the word "prism" successfully to a 2 year old, and some of these other words are clearly more for the older kids. Last weeks information was: Theme- Sun, Vocabulary word- Ray, Yellow, H, 8, Nursery Rhyme- Hickory Dickory Dock. She's doing really well with most of the curriculum and I feel confident she's learning lots of new things each week. We've already gone through several more themes- stars, rainbows, Lighthouses, etc.

I can't wait for Spring to finally get here so we can play outside and get more exercise. I think I'll feel better about giving her a more well-rounded day if she can get some fresh air every day. I'm guilty of hibernating in the winter- I hate the cold on top of being paranoid about driving when it might be icy. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that within two weeks we can have the backyard set up and ready to play in.

Pics-

Stars-



Some of her Artwork hanging over her art desk-


The beginnings of her reading corder:

I needed a fix to keep Kylie away from the paper books (she eats them). The play kitchen used to be in this corner, but since it's up a step anyway I switched the books and the kitchen giving Kayla a little nook to read in. I'll spruce it up, maybe get a cute sign for her. I also added the letter of the week cork board. She's terribly uninterested in the letters and their sounds as of yet, so I'm trying to get her more psyched about it by giving her a board to hang things that start with with whatever letter we're working on. We'll see how it goes.

My feltboard-



I'll be making some fun things to play with on there, eventually. The other night I dreamt in feltboard stories, and although it was the most boring dream I've ever had, I took it as a sign to make on of these bad boys. I got a cheap frame from Walmart, although I'm sure I could have found a prettier one for cheap at a thrift shop. I bought some felt from the fabric store and let Kayla choose the color- she wanted green. This frame had a cardboard back and a flexible plastic where nicer frames would have glass. Remove that glass, but I left the plastic to make it sturdier. Then I just hotglued the felt to the cardboard and put it back in the frame. Yay!

Anywho, I have two babies getting into shenanigans again so I'm off!

I'm not sure how I've been doing this a month so far and still have yet to tell anyone aside from a few friends and my dad. My dad is all about it. In fact, he ranted for quite a while about how preschool is just an excuse for parents to get rid of their kids, any parent can teach a 4 year old what they need to succeed if they tried, they can get socialized everywhere, not just in a classroom, how parents are suckered into paying expensive preschool costs for fear of messing up their children, etc. I know it's mostly just his tendency to hate the 'establishment' and see corruption in everything, but it certainly made me feel happier hearing someone support us.

I know that there have been a bunch of studies that show the benefits of sending your children to preschool, and that's exactly what made the choice so difficult. Much like breastfeeding, the advocates make sure that you feel like an evil, ogre-parent bent on setting your children up for failure in life should you choose another path than what they are explaining. Formula-feed your child, and you are poisoning them (and that's not an exaggeration, I've had someone on a message board tell me I was poisoning Kayla by giving her formula). Don't send your child to preschool and watch them falter and fail in all things academic and social.

When I discuss this with the families, eventually, I will not bring up the other studies that I've read that show that while preschool's short-term effects are well-documented and are the basis for all pro-preschool outcry,the long-term effects are non-existent and that the vast majority of children who showed some advantage over others because of their attendance at a normal preschool even-out with their peers in a few years and go on to score the same in all aspects of their schooling from then on. That'd just cause a fight. But it will be a nice, secret little knowledge that I keep within me and whenever I doubt myself or our decision, it will be my confidence and boost to keep on going.

Oye.

Second Week

Well, our second week of 'preschool' is in full-swing. Since it's Wednesday, we've already changed the theme, colored in the square to the color of the week, and changed the letter of the week to "b". The more that I do this, the more I realize that she's already very comfortable with most of what I'm teaching to her. I'm using these tools as a reinforcement method more than anything else.

This week's information (courtesy of letteroftheweek.com and slightly changed for our needs is:

Theme- Jungle
Vocabulary- vines
Color- red (instead of the their suggested green)
Letter- B
Number-2

I know that green makes more sense in correlation with the theme of 'jungle', but it's Valentine's Day next week and we'll be doing a ton of appropriate projects for the holiday, too. I figured that it would be just as productive to work with red as it is green. And besides, she knows green so much better than red already. For some reason, red and yellow are the hardest ones for her to grasp and she often confuses them. Green will be much more appropriate for next month when we're making St. Patty's day things anyway.

So far for this week we've drawn and colored several pictures of Jungles and jungle animals. I am in the process of helping her make a diaramma of a jungle- I just need to get some pipe cleaners to really get going with it. I found a bunch of little cut and paste projects to make jungle animals and puppets. I have a big board book called "Jungle Animals" that we've been reading. I will, at some point this week, put on Jungle Book for the first time and let her see some jungle creatures in action. Our Disney Journey is slowly beginning with Toy Story and a handful of other movies that she's enjoyed, so maybe Jungle Book will also hit home with her.

I lucked out with the vocabulary word, because one of her favorite shows- Dora- shows her swinging in on- yep! vines! in the opening song. Every time she's seen the show this week I've been repeating- Dora's swinging in on vines! Look! Dora's swinging on a vine!

This Sunday I was thrilled to find an area rug on clearance for Kayla's room- with letters on it! Yay! And so we've played with letters several times already! We jump around on the rug looking for different letters.


So for 15 bucks, I think it's a win!




And here's a few pictures from last week... nothing spectacular, but may as well post while I'm in the mood!

Hello, fine motor skill development:






("How Many apples, Kay?" ".... FIIIIIVE!"



Since it's been freezing, snowing, and I'm not interested in attempting to drive and get back up the drive-of-death, we've been kind of stuck inside a lot. Aside from the normal dancing, running, and shenanigans in general, we've called in the big guns and brought up the best investment we've made so far for Kayla....




The Step2 Up and Down Roller Coaster. Thinking about getting it? Do it. Easy to assemble and disassemble, lightweight but sturdy as heck. Hours and hours and hours of entertainment. We take this up every once in a while from the basement and let her play with it. On those days, she can ride this thing easily 50 times. Here it is in action:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7qGV9R4gF0
Then, of course, there are the other random things we did through the week:


Her finished poster:


Letter A:




Cut, paste, color cows



Random





There was a lot more done, but it's almost nap time, and I can't keep sitting here all day!

In conclusion... so far this preschool thing is going well. I'm very happy.

Mid-week thoughts

So it's Wednesday of the first week of the 'preschool' thing. I can't really judge so far how useful it's been, but Kayla seems to enjoy what we've done so far. It hasn't been too much, but I also think this is more of a review for her, honestly. She's really good with recognizing shapes, letters, numbers, and a lot of animals already so those things aren't too much of a challenge. She still is learning the colors but she's much better now with them than a few months ago.

So on Monday, we put a picture of a cow and the word "CALF" on her learning poster. We colored pictures of cows, made a popsicle stick cow puppet (which, incidentally, is already in the garbage because she kept ripping the limbs off!) and I've been repeating the word "CALF" as much as I can think to do. We've read Click Clack Moo Cows that Type and looked at other pictures and books with cows and calves in them. I showed her videos of cows being milked online. She's pretty good with the whole cow thing and if you ask her what a baby cow is called, she says, "yalf!" so we're getting there.

On Tuesday, 'square' day, Kylie wasn't here because of the snow so we did an art project involving pasting small squares on a paper. We colored things with squares and we found things around the house that were square shaped (napkins, dish towels, etc.). She really recognizes the shapes super well, so I didn't feel the need to force much of that on her. We had a lazy day of square-searching and that pretty much sailed us easily through the day until bedtime. Of course we kept talking about cows and finished up one project from the day before... a paper plate cow.

Today is the Letter A day. She really does know how to identify the letter without hesitation, so I am taking another easy day with her. We will color some pictures of A's and pictures of things that begin with the A sound. I'll look for the letter A in her books with her at some point today, and maybe fingerpaint later so she can trace the letter A with her fingers.

So far this week has been fantastic! I'll update with pictures soon.