Drawing

Jordy likes to draw but he is also a little destructive with the pens or crayons so i have not been as free with letting him draw as a could be. At the moment we sit down together and he will either draw something and tell me what it is, or he’ll ask me to suggest things for him to draw, or he’ll ask me to draw things for him. He still tests me wuth drawing on the furniture and carpet so once we have gotten over that i will set up an area for him so he can draw whenever he likes.

The only recognisable thing that he draws is a circle. But i think that is pretty good! He can’t draw just a straight line yet. If i ask him to copy a straight line that i have drawn his might start straight but then he likes to keep on drawing in a wiggle. But the wiggle is fun! So we mostly just draw whatever.

We have only really painted once (i am so slack with that!) but he enjoyed the colours so i will do more of that soon.

 

Colours and Shapes

Jordy can recognise red, yellow, purple, orange, brown, pink and blue. He gets green confused with blue quite often. Sometimes he gets orange confused with yellow when tthey are close together and i am not surprised by that but the blue and green thing is a definate confusion between distinct colours. Will keep playing with it. The fishing game he has is great cos it works with both colours and numbers and taking turns and is heaps of fun.

He recognises all the basic shapes- circle, square, triangle, hexagon, cross etc from the shape sorting games. I don’t think i will really bother teaching him the names of other shapes just yet (does not seem important to me!) but i have a much harder shape sorting game that i will get out for him soon to learn to recognise them visually rather than learn the name for them.

Space and the Moon

Jordy loves looking at the moon and stars and likes to know when the moon will be out and where in the sky it will be. It is often the first thing he checks when he goes outside. He likes to pretend to be in a rocket travelling to the moon.

He knows what the Earth looks like and likes to play with our globe. He recognises the Earth from the weather report etc on tv and is learning that Australia is on the Earth and that is where we live.

We are playing with and learning about the moons and stars being in space and that the Earth is also in space. We might also play with the globe and look at maps soon with rivers and oceans etc.

Music

Jordy loves his guitar and drums. He sometimes plays with the maracas and xylophone and recorder but not as often. He will sing a song when playing the guitar and often makes up his own story while strumming.  He can keep a beat well and will naturally beat the drum or guitar in time with whatever music is playing. He can’t make any kind of tune with the xylophone yet, he just bangs all over the place, but he enjoys it when Tim plays a repetitive tune on it.

 

Numbers

Jordy likes counting and can sort of count to ten. Actually he can count really well to 6 and then can get a bit all over the place. He counts better when he counts backwards from ten (thanks to the countdown onthe microwave!)

He recognises his numbers but gets 2 and 5 confused sometimes and also 6 and 9 confused. And he calls ten ‘o’.

He is starting to understand that the numbers equate to the amount of an item and can count actual objects up to three. After that he just says ‘more’.

Personal Care

Jordy is pretty much daytime toilet trained. I would say that he was generally toilet trained before his birthday but we still had the occasional accident and he went through a week of maybe only 50% accuracy after being up at about 90% so i am not sure what happened that week but we are back to almost 100% for wees.  I am not fully confident when out of the house but so far he has been amazingly good (even doing a poo in the toilet while at a friend’s house yesterday).

Poos in general are maybe only 50% (although the last two days have been perfect). Sometimes he seems to get embarrased and asks me to stop and stay away while he poos. We’re working on making it more fun!

We still have occasional accidents during or immediately after his nap. So i use a towel or a pair of pull up one wet pants for his nap just in case. And he still definately needs a nappy overnight but i have no intention of starting on night time awareness until summer!

Tooth brushing is sooo hit and miss.  I need to do more. Sometimes he enjoys it other times it creates a tantrum.  I have to remember to try twice a day so that at least a few teeth get brushed. He wants to use out brushes and because he can’t he does not like his own brush so much.

Social Skills

Jordy is learning to share at the moment.  He does not mind sharing (particularly with Darcy) if it’s his idea, and will often offer to share, but if he is told to share he sometimes needs to be encouraged or bribed!  He shares better if he is offered another toy to play with while waiting to get his preffered toy back.

He understands taking turns and that sometimes it is his turn and sometimes it is another persons turn. But he likes to be the person who controls whose turn it is.

He plays well alongside kids of the same age and enjoys chasing and hiding games. He is starting to want to play with other kids in a group game but unless there is an older child present who directs the play then he has trouble initiating a game. With older kids he enjoys imaginary play like tea parties, cooking, bedtime etc.

 

 

 

A blog just for Jordy

I’ve decided to keep a record of Jordy’s learning and skill development as a bit of a homeschooling trial. Mostly it’s just for fun but i thought it might also be nice to keep a track of what his interests are and the things he likes to do and learn…..  so here we go!