Swimming

Jordy can do ‘kick and swim’ quite well- sort of like a dog paddle but with me still supporting him. But I am not sure how far away he is from being about to paddle and keep himself afloat. I would imagine he is still quite a ways from it! But it’s hard to tell.  His kicks are quite good but i think he thinks it’s mostly for splashing and not for propulsion.

He is no worries at all waiting on the edge while i get a toy and come back to him. He understands that he needs to wait until i say it is ok to jump in. But he won’t neccesarily stand or sit still on the edge of the pool. He’ll sometimes move around even when i ask him to stay seated.

He is getting more confident floating just on the noodle but while he is floating on it he would overbalance and his arms would slip backwards off it if i was not holding him on it.  

He can do ‘monkey’ really well but often just wants to climb out of the pool so he can go on the slide etc cos he knows that is what comes next after the ‘monkey’.  But he can support his own weight on the edge of the pool with one hand while he uses the other hand to stick a suction cup toy onto the pool wall.  I like this skill and want to do it often as i think holding onto the edge of the pool is a really vital skill.

He does not enjoy the starfish float on his back. So that is the main thing i want to work on in the water so that he knows he can float on his back and not sink.

He is happy to go underwater but is often too busy talking or laughing to close his mouth. Last class the instructor passed him under the water to me for about a metre or more and he was under water for several seconds and had no problem.

He blows bubbles well but will often then breathe in at the end without taking his mouth out of the water.

 

Movement

Jordy can jump from a small height like a single step but will not jump from the deck (thankfully!). He enjoys jumping over a skipping rope or from the carpet to the tiles etc.  But i don’t think he could jump over anything much higher off the ground than a skipping rope at this stage.

He can do a somersault but half the time only rolls over his shoulder rather than right over his head.

He can climb a ladder or up the change table etc etc with no effort.

Books

There are a few books that are particular favourites that are read often and several books that Jordy likes to read himself and point out the characters and pictures in the books.  So far reading a story before bed does not fit his routine. Once in bed he likes to talk to us or just go to sleep rather then have us tell him a story. 

Over the next few months i might start showing him the words in the familiar books and give him a chance to see the letter and word patterns and sounds.

 

Letters

Jordy can recognise quite a few letters b, B, e, g, i, l, m, M, o, A, s, S, t, w, W,  not sure what others ones… but we had been referring to the letters with their name rather than their sound so i think that might just make things confusing when learing to sound out words. But then again kids seem to be pretty cluey so he can probably learn both the name of the letter and the sound of it at the same time??  Not sure. 

We have not really spent much time reading through the alphabet books, his knowledge of letters has come more from reading objects in front of u s(like the weet-bix box). But i think we will spend more time learning to recognise letters and whole words in the coming months.

I might get some letter magnets for the fridge so they are seen frequently through the day.

In the garden

Jordy has one little corner of the garden that is built up at his height and he likes to dig out the little green seed balls from the plants and find snails etc and put them in his piece of garden. He likes to hide the white pebbles inside the holes of the bricks and then discover them again.

In spring we might plant some flowers or strawberries or something in there so he can watch seedlings grow and also pick his own fruit.

Sandpit

Jordy loves his sandpit.  He plays for long periods of time building mounds and knocking them over, pushing his trucks around, pressing shapes into the sand, digging or raking.  It’s one of the few activities that he can become engrossed in and not need any interaction with me for-  he is truely happy to play alone and tell himself stories about what he is doing.

Origami & Play-Doh

Origami is probably the only real craft activity we do at the moment… not sure what else counts as craft! We have also coloured in paper to make rockets out of…  Oh, and play-doh.  Jordy enjoys rolling the playdoh and making worms and snakes and snails.

So far the origami is mostly me making things although Jordy tells me what he wants me to make and he helps press down the folds etc.

I think i should make more play-doh as it has been a while since we played with it properly and i think he would have a lot of fun with it now. That will be on my list of things to do next week.