a busy morning

well, it’s only a little after 10:00 and already Jordy has had a big morning! He’s played with his nature basket and sat in the dark again to make more sparks with his quartz, worked with the cylinder block, drawn with his magnadoodle, played ball and, most interesting to me, made shapes with some sticks.

He was playing with some parts of another game that have four wooden posts and he made a triangle and was trying to make a square. I watched for a while and then foolishly interrupted by giving him some coloured paddlepop sticks to use instead. I should have just let him be to work with it himself! We continued to make shapes and straight lines with the paddlepop sticks but he wanted me to do it with him and would often say it was “hard work” when he was successfully doing it alone before i interrupted.

So that’s my lesson for today- to step back and let him work as he chooses. I should have just noted his attempts and tomorrow presented the sticks as new material. I wonder if i should present the geometic demonstration tray soon?

today’s activities

Jordy is wanting to pour water and although i do not feel that he has mastered dry pouring i gave him a jug and some containers this morning to play with. I think during the week i will work on pouring rice and refining his skills so that he is ready for the wet pouring.

He has also chosen to work with the sandpaper globe today and with his “tell the time” book.

I added some items to his nature basket today including two pieces of quartz that we found in the dry riverbed. I showed him how you can make a spark by hitting them together which he thought was amazing.

I am hoping to spend some time this week with his sandpaper letters or perhaps even try him with a sand writing tray. Although it is sooner than i would choose to be working with writing the shape of the letters he is totally fascinated with letters at the moment and goes out of his way to find letters to read. I am hoping that if i show him the shape of the lower case letters i can make their phonetic sounds more concrete for him rather than just the name of the letter.

I think i might just select the first several letters (a,s,t,b,c,m) to work with as when presented with the entire alphabet he gets a little excited and just goes from letter to letter.

camping

we went camping for a few days and it was wonderful for Jordy to experience a different environment for a while. He soaked up all the different plants and birds that we showed him so i hope to make some classified pictures of what he saw to keep them fresh in his memory.

We collected come rocks and other bits for his nature basket. He enjoyed listening for the different bird calls. And he learnt a few practical camping skills like collecting water, tending the fire, making damper, sweeping, and that sort of thing.

improving focus

Jordy has chosen to work with his sorting games a few times over the last week and he will do part of the work and then things deteriorate. He’ll pour all the grains onto the base tray and swish them around and the tip them on the carpet and decide he is finished…. typical 2yr old behaviour… ?? will come up with some ideas to refocus his attention.

He enjoyed painting, looking through his nature basket, and his basket of interesting things today…. not sure what to call that! An odds and ends basket?? Also his fishing game and cylinder blocks. I’d like to expand on the cylinder blocks and have him arrange them in order outside of the actual block.

And he put together his ring tower in the right order today for the first time that i have seen. I now have a growing appreciation for the advantage of having them all exactly the same except for a graduation of size as he spent most of the time arranging them according to whichever colour he preferred next. It was not until i asked which was the biggest, and then the next biggest that he put it together. After doing it once though he went back to choosing colours and making them get stuck so they made the post look like a rocket….?

sorting games

i presented Jordy with two new sets of material today; sorting buttons and sorting grains. The initial presentation was not ideal- i need to work on my delivery as he wants to do it immediately rather than waiting for me to complete the demonstration. But he went back to both materials later in the day and worked on them again.

He seemed to really enjoy both tasks.  The buttons are really easy for him but i made each colour also progress in size and i have not shown him that yet. I am happy for him to continue his own work with it as it is good for his coordination and counting, and it’s good to have a task that he can master quickly so that i can use that to build upon and demonstrate more about how to use the tray and basket etc rather than the actual task itself.

catch up

Over the last week i have found Jordy has a preference for the latches board, puzzles, and sandpaper letters.

He has also chosen to work with the colour cards, sandpaper globe, globe of the earth, cylinder blocks, lacing animals, balls, plastic animals, shape sorter, building blocks, books, and cooking set.

His imaginary play consists of his cardboard rocket and car, imaginary shop play, hide and seek. 

His main focus has been on letters and numbers. He spends a large amount of time each day reading individual letters and numbers wherever he can find them, as well as counting forwards and backwards.

a new day

our Monte materials arrived and i have started making bits. I have prepared an environment and am learning how to present the work and materials in a way that Jordy will respond to. So far so good!  He loves everything having a proper place but the idea of working with just ONE item at a time is not going so well. LOL!

I am going to find a way to set up a chart of his progress and the materials he is enjoying etc. Time for a clear out and get this blog in order…..