Mudchute farm

Summer is her at last!

We made a trip at Mudchute farm where M. can see farm animals, feed them and even touch them and run after them. It is a lovely place where you can really feel like in the country-side.
M. had lots of fun! There were small lambs free on the meadow and she was running after them to stoke them, eventually she cracked the tecnique and managed to successfully touch quite a few of them.
It was a really sunny and hot day. We had a pic-nic with our friends and then a little stroll to make all the little ones sleep.
There is also a small play-ground where they had time to play when they woke up from their nap.






MESSY PLAY

I put some rice on a oven dish and gave M. some containers and spoons to play with it. She put the rice in and out the containers, she tried all the different size spoons and enjoyed this activity for quite a long time.

POTTY TRAINING

M. is now 2 and 3 months, the season is getting warmer and I think she is ready to make the big step from baby to little girl.
I am expecting her to understand exactly where she needs to make a wee and poo and why, and I am also expecting lots of mess and accident for the first week, getting better and better as the days pass.

To make the all process rewarding, and hopefully quicker, I have introduced a reward chart, similar to the ones I made previously. We chose to have Meg and Mog on it, her favourite book characters, and every time she makes wee in the potty she will get a sticker, sometimes even only the effort to sit and try will award her a sticker (at least for the first couple of days).



The first day (friday, 4 days ago)was quite disappointing for me, because M. made a couple of wees on the floor and didn't even care or have any feelings for it, she just moved away from her puddle and kept on being busy with her toys. I didn't expect that she wouldn't even tell me that she has done it!
I felt that I was up to a difficult and long task.

I then introduced to the chart a final prize she would get if she could collect lots of stickers and become really good at using the potty. This prize is something that she wants from long time: a scooter.
I cut a picture of it from the Argos' catalogue and I sticked it to the chart, so every time she goes to put a sticker she is reminded of her prize.
To make her successful efforts even more rewarding troughtout the potty training I told her I will reward her from time to time with a clog-charm for her clogs; since she is into the little mermaid at the moment, I bought from e-bay 4 charms with different characters from the walt-disney animation. Today she got Sebastian because she made a wee on the grass in the park, and when we arrived home I gave her the Ariel one because again she made wee on her own, today she never wet herself.

Now our chart looks like this: stickers that she got for using the potty, on the left the photos of her future scooter and hung on Meg's hat the bag with the clog-charms.



I am really proud of her to have progressed so quickly! Of course I am expecting more mess and accidents, but the important thing is that she is getting in the habit to use the potty.

BACK TO WORK

It has been a long time since I last updated the blog. I have been feeling less energetic and recently the weather didn't help. Nonetheless we have done some interesting activities and outings.
M. kept on colouring, drawing and playing with the play-dough and make believe, we went often to the library and to the children's centres. M. is learning to recognise the colours and she learnt to count to 10. In April, during the warm weather we went to the Mudchute farm, the Lady Diana's memorial play-ground and we had a couple of pic-nics in the park. When the weather worsened we went to the Childhood Museum and the London Aquarium.

Today I set few activities for her to do at home.

MAKE-BELIEVE

We played with the play-dough and we pretended to make spaghetti, pizza, eggs and cakes.





We pressed the playdough onto the plastic food and felt the different impressions that were coming out.




ANIMALS PROJECT.

M. coloured in a ladybird, a squirell and a bunny.

MESSY PLAY




M. played with water, from the aquarium visit she learnt that fish can't walk and that to survive they need to stay in the water. She often repeats this when she plays with her fish, octopus and wale toys.



ART and CRAFT

M. glued some pasta shapes, rise and lentils to a paper.