every new word

WORDS

Every day M. is saying a new word! It is amazing to hear her pronounce perfectly, sometimes trying to say or say in her own way a word that the previous day she didn't know. She is bla bla speaking with the usual words and suddenly there you have it a brand new word that just fits right in with her sentence and instead of a pointing or a sign there is a very clear well pronounced word!

Also we have already started the phase of "what is this mummy". It happened four days ago, at the tender age of 23 months and it didn't stop, I know it won't for a long time. For now I am very happy with her curiosity, answering to her questions in a polity, calm and motherly way. Of course she is asking me about things that have always been around her and she surely know their use (carpet, umbrella, cream); I think that she just want me to repeat the world for her, so she can learn it.

To improve on her already fab progress we used our flash cards and now she is willing to try and say more words whereas before she wouldn't even attempt to. I noticed that she takes a long time to learn a new world in my mother tongue, but she registers an English word so quickly she can repeat it back the second after it was pronounced! She knows so many English words that I never taught her, she just learnt them because she overheard me talking to someone or from the TV. She would probably speak first in English if i wouldn't put so much effort for her to learn our mother tongue.



EYE-HAND COORDINATION and MANUAL DEXTERITY

M. is having a big fun time with mega blocks recently. She used to build only tall towers made of the single unit blocks, or add to my constructions some single unit blocks here and there. Now her imagination has grown. She is building "aeroplanes" and "houses" and she wants to use all the blocks, adding them on and on until there aren't any left. The way she fits the blocks together as developed a lot in comparisons to few week ago.

Mega blocks are really good to play with in M.'s age because there isn't a real goal to achieve, just put them together and see what will come out, it is an enjoyable toy for all the family, it is probably the activity that will keep a small child interested the longest, and also it helps with eye-hand coordination and manual dexterity.

I love the mega blocks my self!

COLOURS

We done some colour in activities. Sitting with her I let her give me with crayon or felt-tip she wants me to use and then I label the colour (oh M. is giving mummy red), so that she will also learn the names of the colour. Then I ask her which part of the drawing she wants mummy to colour in, and I colour that part that colour until she gives me a new colour. It doesn't matter if a girl's hair will get colour in red rather than in brown or yellow: this is her drawing and she can choose to do it in any colour she likes. This will be more enjoyable for her instead of listening to mummy saying "no, girl's hair aren't red". I believe she likes to say to mummy what to do for a change!

I enjoy seeing how confident she is making choices of colours and what drawing she wants to do the colouring on.

MESSY PLAY

We played with water: I filled up with some water her bath tub and put her dolly, different size containers and her tea set to make a tea for the dolly. Of course she had lots of fun and after 15 minutes I had to stop the activity because she was totally wet!

We also had fun with finger paint where M. splat and splat her hands and then spread the paint all over the paper. It is quite messy but she didn't want to stop splatting.

ROLE PLAY

We usually play with her kitchen and plastic food, but this time I tried to introduce real food like pasta and rice and wasabi nuts (sure enough that she won't eat them). I didn't have anything else suitable but I guess dried lentils, chickpeas and fruit are good too.

I showed her how she should pretend to put water in the pot, add the pasta and then the salt... mix and then put the lid on the pot. When ready the pasta is put on the plates and served...mmmmmm.

She then copied every thing I did, adding the rice and other things to her dish too.

This activity is also good to experience different texture; for this point it may be nice also used cooked pasta for different textures.