Learning

Besides the things we have always done nearly every day, I am starting to have the kids help me more around the house and doing more reading aloud to them. I also pulled up Nick's booster seat closer to the table so he can sit like he is truly part of the family.

Xander is good at doing his own chore cards. Today I also asked him to help me pull off dirty pillowcases and put on clean ones, plump the pillows, place them at the head of the bed, clean the insides of windows, and clear more dishes from the table himself. Nick "helped" me dust and sweep. Most of these chores were done in the master bedroom, so these were not personal chores for them, but I want them to get used to all of the work that's done around the house. This is a great time to do it. Xander willingly did everything I asked him to do. As much as he likes his independent play time, he likes to hang out with me. (I know this is short-lived - another good reason to take advantage of it now!) Nick likes to be with me, too, and going around doing chores is more interesting to him than his same old toys in the same old places. He did protest when I swept the laundry room floor one-handed; I think he felt insecure with only one arm around him and my body leaning away.

I read aloud to both of them more often than I usually do and allowed Xander to build with Legos while I read. We hadn't been doing learning activities very often because I scheduled them for after rest time and he kept falling asleep and passing the time that I had available for them. I changed that to just before rest time and we had a great time. I am honestly amazed at what he has learned since the last time I tried certain things with him. He can make careful closed circles around objects. When there was a longer object he wanted to circle, he asked me if he could make an oval instead. We talked about things that change from color to color like ripening fruits and chameleons. He listened intently to a longer picture book called Little Red Riding Hood: A New-Fangled Prairie Tale and followed the story with comprehension. (I stopped and made comments or asked him questions throughout.) He sang with me (which didn't used to be his strong point) and found rectangles around the room. We had a ruler out at one point and he used it to measure things that he was building.

I know he's no dummy, it's just that he's been slower to verbalize everything and reluctant to do writing and workbook activities. Now he does those things well and happily.

We have not had the TV on yet today. He is perfectly content to do chores, play, listen to books, do learning activities, go to the library, and draw lines in a workbook. (This by itself is enough to make it a wonderful day, but another fantastic part of it was that I got more chores done since I had them help me rather than waiting until they napped to start my cleaning work.)

Oh, and we got his first library card today and put it into his first wallet.

He also says that he is going to save up for a kid's computer. By this he means a real computer with Internet, because he wants to "look for Little Einsteins things."

Nick is smiling and "talking" to us. He is so good at imitating. I told him I was sweeping cobwebs and he said, "Cob bledehlaalll." He's beginning to clap on his own. He already learned to stamp his feet to music. I realized the other day that he doesn't touch the top shelf books on his bookcase even though he can reach them. I had spent about ten minutes on telling him no to those books and yes to the ones on the bottom shelf. He looks at me before he tries to touch our DVD player or drop food on the floor. He knows.