What's new: latest creations, acquisitions, and activities

After M turned 15 months at the end of March, I thought it appropriate to start introducing the concept of setting a table and I found the placemat was a simple way to do it. On my wishlist there was a beautiful cloth placemat but having realized M could perfectly be 3 by the time I learned how to sew and made my ideal mat, I have asked my mum to make it for us. This means we won't have it immediately. In the meantime, we are using a provisional one, I made by tracing plate and cutlery with a permanent marker, as you can see here.

Another of M's grandma's creations is this cute woolen satchel. M likes it and is almost able to get her arms through the straps on her own. It has proved to be useful and been a great hit among relatives and friends.

 

In order to welcome spring, which seems to have gone away for the past two or three weeks, we made a Spring felt board. It's really simple to make and makes a beautiful open-ended activity. M seems to like it, although she waits for me to make up the picture. 

Last week we gave sorting by color a shot. It didn't really engage M, but there it was suggested.

One of the things on my to-do list is homemade painting... I have several recipes and have been wanting to try one for a long time. In the meantime, we decided to paint the balcony and this is how M helped:

Some words must be added to the growing list of vocabulary. As it couldn't be otherwise, due to the amount of time we seem to be spending handling cutlery and dinner sets, one of the new acquisitions is "po" for "fork". Others are "pedra" (stone), which you say amazingly clear; "boo" for "ball", and "bó" for "sabó" (soap); "teeth", "knee", "chair", and the star of the week: up, up, up. Seeing you tell yourself "up" when you fall down cheers my soul up.

One more week, I am linking up to Melissa's Vibrant Wanderings.

What have we been up to lately?

Some unexpected events and other expected ones have kept me busy and a bit tired as of late. I regret not having posted oftener and have a bit of a feeling of hopelessness. However, I will try to make up for this absence by sharing some pics of interesting outings.
As you can imagine, M has been having a great time.

On Good Friday we went for a walk downtown and she enjoyed strolling hither and thither. I realized it was her first time walking down a pedestrian walkway and I loved to see her self-confident and joyful. It was a delightful picture to watch.

After the walk we met some friends in a nice child-friendly café and M felt at home. She found at least two teddies. It is incredible how much she loves teddy bears.

 

At the weekend we went to visit a nearby farm and that's what we found; baaaa.

There are quite a few words and concepts M has picked up and been using as of late. One that fascinates us is "aya". First she took to calling her cousin "aya". We wondered why, 'cause she also called her "kiakia", something closer to her real name "Clara". Then she started using "aya" when pointing at girls in the street, the market or  anywhere. They were mostly beautiful girls with long hair. She also uses "aya" for her aunt Iris, whose hair is very long and very black, and most of the time she exclaims "aya" happily, almost as happy as when she calls her teddies. She really fancies "ayas".

Another concept she has picked recently is "up" and I am amazed at how clearly she says it. It is probably the first word, apart from "mama" and "papa" she utters completely and fine. "Up" she tells herself when she falls down. "Up" when she wants to climb to bed. "Up" asking me to pick her up.

Some other words she has started using are "pedra" (stone in Catalan), "more", "ham", "chair", "ball". We also notice a bit of syntax sneaking in, for instance when she says "papa nyam nyam" while attempting to feed her dad, or "nena psss" while sitting a doll on the potty.

I love how she talks to herself or to her teddies and the way she has taken to reading books aloud. She oftentimes comes to me with a book wanting me to read it to her, which I am always willing to do. It is not seldom that she wants me to skip to her favorite page. She seems to have a favorite page in every book. 

Some of the activities I set up for her these past weeks have caught her attention, others have been a flop. Those which didn't appeal to her made me think it was due to the way they were suggested, too abstractly maybe. She would simply ignore them. After pondering it over, I ended up deciding that we desperately need a nice wooden tray. In the meantime I have tried to suggest activities in a clearer way simulating tray-contained activities and this has proved to be a success.

I left a mini-basket with kiwis and a mold for cupcakes on the rug last night for her to discover this morning and she headed for it still in her pajamas. 

Quite a hit were the small foam squares I clipped for her to stick to the window. Of course the water included had something to do with the activity being successful. There you can see her sticking wet foam squares to the window (please ignore the spots on the glass... it's been raining most of the week:-)

Something new we have finally organized in the kitchen is a low cabinet for M to get snacks whenever she feels hungry. I have been wanting to do this for ages but only managed to do it today and it took less than ten minutes... However, I start noticing that she is able to ask for something she is not seeing. It used to happen only with "water", "teddy" or "papa", but she is now able to say "banana", for instance, if she is hungry. Or more frequently "more" pointing towards the place she ate something before.

Another milestone that took place today was M putting her pants half on. She has been attempting to get dressed many times, masters hats and scarves, headbands and necklaces, but pants... this is news!!

 

I am linking up to Vibrant Wanderings right away before the midnight clock strikes twelve and my precious computer turns into a pumpkin:-)

Thanks for reading!!!

What's new: total autonomy, mopping, and "more"

We've been having lots of fun since M turned 15 months and started walking -real walking. Montessori was so right when she stressed the importance of the liberation of the hands. For a toddler it is a landmark to stand up and start walking. This leaves her hands free to explore, manipulate, transport, while being able to move around at the same time.*
Now that M doesn't need her hands to crawl, a completely new perspective opens up for her to explore and she seems to be thriving on it. One of the activities she has been enjoying recently is mopping the floor. Water is of course included and she never misses an opportunity to be near water. It has been pretty sunny here lately so most mornings we actually go outside and play with water and I love to see how M reports our doings to her father when he gets home.

May it be due to the change of position or to the 15 months, she is now willing to do everything by herself and imitation has become a great motivation. She wants to get dressed by herself, feed herself without any help, and spends some time putting on hats, headbands or necklaces and then peeping at the mirror.
She has picked up some new words, which she oftentimes uses (cheese, toes, sí, no, més, and pedra) and I am specially amazed by the logic of some terms she uses for more than one object or person. "Eyes" was one of the first words she started using while pointing at my eyes right away after waking up in the morning. However, later she has started using the same term for light and for glasses. I thought at first that the resemblance between the sounds /lait/ and /ais/ was the origin of such a fusion but what a silly girl must have I been. She is not that careless. There is some logic hidden in that selection. We see with the eyes, thanks to the light and with the help of glasses (in my case). She has always been very interested in glasses and long long ago I left an old pair in one of her discovery baskets for her to explore. It is not seldom that she reaches for my glasses before I have even gotten up from bed and waits for me to hand them to me, as if they were my crutches. Well, they unfortunately are...
Some other terms she uses in a very specific way are "aya" and "yaya". I mentioned the use of the latter in another post. The former was originally the name she gave her cousin -and sometimes babysitter- Clara, but later she has started using "aya" for young girls with long hair.
Another word she picked up lately was "més" (Catalan word for "more"). It took me a bit to see this, 'cause she would say "mémé" and it sounded similar to "mama" but rackink my brains I noticed she said it mostly when eating and I realized it had been her father's influence always asking if she wanted more (més). Interestingly enough "més" stands for "more", "again", and "the other one". When she is eating something she specially likes, she will keep telling you "més", "més". Then, recalling she played with water outside, she will peep through the balcony's door and proclaim "més".
Other activities we have been enjoying this week are baking and cooking. It was delightful to have such an enthusiastic kitchen assistant...

A complete novelty around here was painting with paint and brushes. I wanted to decorate Easter eggs and give painting a shot so I got down to work. When I set up the activity, I didn't really think M would be interested in painting with a brush, so I used fingerpaint and prepared myself for any kind of initiative. Much to my surprise, M took the brush and that's what she did:

Toilet brushing has also featured daily in our morning "program". Yes, I know what you are thinking. Yuk. She never had an interest in the toilet brush before but now that she does, I'd rather encourage her motivation for practical life activities than prevent them from taking place.

Although a bit late, I am now linking up to Melissa's Vibrant Wanderings. I owe her the inspiration for these updates in M's progress. I hope you enjoyed reading us. I wish you all a very nice Easter break!!!


* "By the time the child is fifteen months old, the early mission of hand and brain development is complete: the intellect, guided by information supplied by the hand, is developing, and the hand is now an effective tool" (...) "the child has accomplished an extraordinary feat: he has gotten himself ready for activities directed toward work with structured materials--in other words, for human activity". Lillard P.P. & Lillard Jessen L, Montessori from the start, p. 58.

Walking, dressing up, and helping around

I always look forward to reading "what's new babe" post updates by Melissa at Vibrant Wanderings, and plan to link up with our latest news but up to now I have never done it for one reason or another.
As I've read Melissa's wonderful news today and the wise sentences sprinkled in whatever she writes, I've told myself I really had to sit down and write what's going on around here. As usually, I've found so much truth in something implied in her post: there are so many things a toddler learns/does that as mothers we might be terrified at the idea of forgetting them. This idea frightens me indeed. So, without any more time wasted. I am setting pen to paper (well, forgive my metaphor!).
In my next to last Joy Pocket's post two weeks ago, I mentioned M was already taking some steps and using the potty. Both actions have seen some improvement since then. She spends part of the day walking from one point of support to another one, taking up to a dozen steps sometimes. She is even able to stand while picking up objects such as an empty water carafe, which has surprised me a good deal. I love to see her stumbling as if she were on a tightrope or concentrating on getting up from squat position. Since she was able to stand for the first times, it has been clear that she is fully aware of the process and shows satisfaction at every little step further. It is truly delightful to watch. I am impressed by her (self-)awareness in this department but not only. She also signals awareness of other kinds. In the language department she recognizes some body parts, both on herself and on others. She points at her feet, for instance, and says "toes" and then is able to point at my toes or her teddy's toes demonstrating she can relate her toes or nose to those of others. She also tries on necklaces or hats and either uses her hand mirror or asks to be taken to the big mirror that hangs from the wall of the living room. At the sight of herself she happily grins and says "nena"(=girl).

She has entered an imitation stage and tries to repeat most of the actions we do -and most of the words we tell her. In my opinion this is a great opportunity for modeling behavior. It is something that has really become obvious in this brand-new 15th month. She copies me when arranging the couch or cleaning a spot. She tries to use her cutlery when eating, feeds the teddy before feeding herself, makes the teddy sit on the potty. This is something that melts my heart. Some mornings ago, as we were getting out of bed, she started saying her word for water. I thought she might be thirsty, so I gave her the bottle I always keep on my bedside stand and before I could say anything the very little water remaining in the bottle was spilled on the bed. The teddy was the one who was thirsty!! She had given the teddy the water but it had not opened its mouth... I couldn't help laughing. And she is like this all day.
When given two options for dressing, she sometimes chooses both, one for her and the other for the teddy. About dressing, in fact, there is much to be said. I've been trying to devise ways in which M could have her clothes on her sight level. Any suggestions will be appreciated, since up to now the solutions aren't satisfactory. In the lobby there is a clothes stand with a low rack and that's ok for the coats and jackets but I wanted to have a kind of dressing area and have not found the ideal set up yet. Anyway, M has no problems in making her mind up. When given options, she seems to have very clear ideas most of the time and even if the thing she wants is somewhere she can't reach she makes you get it for her. It was funny that yesterday afternoon, as we were preparing to go outside, I was showing her two dresses while sitting next to a laundry basket and she decidedly pointed to some jeans, which were not in question. It was clear to me that she would rather wear the jeans.

Something similar happens with potty learning. There are some times when she doesn't want to sit on the potty but she is communicating her needs or the fact that she has already gone -on the diaper- most of the time. I feel we have a long way to go yet, but I am happy about the fact that she is able to communicate that she has pooped or peed, mostly using the word "caca". Despite it is a pity I didn't hear about elimination communication before M was born, I am glad we've been trying to EC from the moment I learned about it and I plan to talk about it in a post soon.

And well, a bit hasty, for I must head for the bed now, but this is a bit about what it is going on around here. I will be very happy to link up to "what's new babe". Thanks for the opportunity, Melissa.