Spelling Bee

AJ's teacher at Montessori school asked me to read "Brown Bear" and "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" by Eric Carle. She said that he was ready to read. Well actually, he has "read" Brown Bear to me many times and we have it on video, however I don't and can't actually believe that he's reading. He's only memorizing I'm sure of it.

On many occassions he's pointed out all kinds of words and titles, and calling each letter out by name. I guess he understands that letters form words. But this is where the spelling gets tricky. Ask him to spell stop and he knows it's S-T-O-P especially from recognizing stop signs. Now here is where it gets tricky.

He's the EXIT sign for a door. He says, "E-X-I-T spells door!"

MONTESSORI PROGRAM

The school also provided a progress report or report card. It is so fascinating all the different tasks they are learning, in various states of readiness. P = Presented, W = Working on it, M = Mastered. I couldn't write them all down, but here is a brief summary from each of the pillars.

Image Source

PRACTICAL LIFE
* Pouring/ Tansferring Solids (includes chopsticks!)
* Pouring/ Transferring Liquids
* Polishing
* Others (Beads, Patterns, Hammering nails)
* Dressing Frames (zippers, buttons, buckles etc)
* Care of Self/ Environment (greet and introduce)
* Social Development

SENSORIAL
* Discrimination of size (Cylinders, Towers, Prisms, Rods)
* Discrimination of colours
* Discrimintation of Stereognostic (touch, weight, sound)
* Discrimination of Forms (Polygons, Geometric Solids etc)

LANGUAGE
* Pre-Writing Activities
* Build phonetic words
* Forming letter (writing letters in booklet)
* Identifying Personal Data
* Pre-Reading Activities
* Writing and Reading preparation

MATHEMATICS
* Numeration 0 to 10
* Numeration 0 to 19
* Numeration 0 to 100 (building quantities by tens, hundred chain, square chain)
* Place Value
* Addition
* Subtraction

CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY
* Globe, Continent, Solar System, Time
* Botany (parts of plants, flowers)
* Zoology (parts, life cycle, vertebrate/ invertabrate)
* Science (sink float, magenetic)

Lots of ideas for Montessori teaching materials in a teacher blog

Take My Breath Away

AJ was at CHEO (Children's Hospital)the other night because he had another bout of asthma;  coughing all day, acting sleepy, and not talking more than one word without coughing. He even made it to the kitchen sink and puked up some white goo. It seems to happen when he gets a bad ough/cold.

Earlier in the afternoon, he was laying on the couch breathing instead of fighting with Maggie, so that was out of character. He ate nothing for dinner and fell asleep at 7pm, too tired for bath.  However he woke up in a fury at 9pm from  coughing too much and freaking out, gasping and coughing and in between single words, he was crying that he couldn't breathe.

Anyway I recognized the signs and realized he had to go to emergency.  They admitted him right away. Oddly he seemed better in the car and I was tempted to just forget the whole thing and go home.  He didn't cough too much in the car, except for whenever he would try to talk to me, due to the reactive airways. He was asleep when I carried him in but woke up nice and chipper. However they measured the oxygen with the infrared "stat" machine and indicated he was in distress. The nurses talked in some kind of triage code and told me that I did the right thing to bring him in, given his history.  This is the second time he's been in the hospital for a respiratory thing. Yah it was
scary a little bit cuz he's been to CHEO for that before so I kinda knew the signs to look for.

They gave him three oxygen masks and ventilin and some steroids that made him really wired and awake. I told him he sounded like Darth Vader and he seemed pleased with that. So he watched Toy Story 2 till he was discharged at 1am. What a night. The smartest kid of the three, but probably the weakest; elbows pop out, peanut allergy emergency etc.

Baby Essential Sound Kit

Product listing for electronic items we found useful for the three kids.
1) Safety 1st DIGITAL audio baby monitor
2) Fisher Price Ocean Wonders Aquarium Crib Toy.
3) Tiny Love Crib Mobile with Classical Music

DIGITAL Baby Monitor with Frequency Hopping
I recently sold the unit to an expectant mother with the original box included, manuals. One baby unit for the crib, and two cordless parent units with recharging bases. Star pattern night light.

Manufacturer Description:
The Safety 1st High-Def Digital Monitor is the next leap in digital audio clarity, providing parent peace of mind that they have distinguished between a gurgle and a whimper, because it utilizes the uncrowded DECT 6.0 frequency for guaranteed clear and private connection with no interference. The transmitter is individually coded to receivers fro guaranteed privacy. The ascending, sound sensitive light bars provide visual impact of increasing sound level. The 1000 plus foot range reassures parent of long range quality.

More info (from Babys R Us and Costco)

• 1.9 GHz radio band frequency reserved for DECT, offering better clarity and privacy
• Range of up to 304.8 m (1000 ft.)
• Zero interference and high-quality audio
• Link indicator
• Transmitter (baby unit) individually coded to receiver (parental unit)
• Light bar arch for increasing sound level
• Visible and audible low battery indicator
• Visible and audible out-of-range indicator
• Pager button to help locate parental unit
• Belt clip on parents' unit allowing mobility
• Easy adjust, push-button volume control
• Flush to face panel buttons
• 3 AAA rechargeable batteries for parent unit (batteries included) and an AC adapter

Selling for $74.99 new retail. Mine must be the previous form factor but the product description remains the same.

Fisher Price Aquarium Ocean Wonders

Put your little one to sleep with this soothing aquarium. It calms Baby with softly glowing light and bubbling motion. All of my kids love this item. Maggie as a newborn would just stare at night, captivated by the shifting lights and dancing fish. I remember watching for her to close her eyes. Well momma, I'd rather watch the fish! Well I didn't really get chance to change the batteries for AJ so he only got to hear the music and see the lights change (not enough juice for the full motion). He liked to play with the attached rolling toys. That kept him well entertained. When Lincoln was born, the older ones would activate the sound for him. I guess he's outgrown it now but he was using it up to age 1, like background music for drifting off to sleep.  Some models come with a remote control which would've been useful.

Plays lullabies (Brahms, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Bach Invention in C) or bubbly water sounds, including ocean waves, Plays for approximately 7 minutes.  Attach to crib rail or set on dresser top

Tiny Love Whirly Twirly Crib Mobile
I bought this crib mobile for Lincoln because we had already given away the Winnie the Pooh wind-up for Maggie and AJ.  When Lincoln was a small baby, he liked this alot because of the colourful creatures and the spinning black and white spiral patterns. However he always fell asleep to the beautiful classical music. The playlist features Mozart, Bach, Chopin and Beethoven. In fact, the first song on the track, Mozart Sonata K. 330, I or K. 331, I is very popular with Maggie and AJ. When I play a certain classical music CD with that song on the fourth track, they call this Lincoln's baby song. Music in the environment, they hear it they absorb it. Now imagine if I told them the name of every song on the track and they could name them by K, BWV or opus numbers.

Planet Earth

AJ was watching the clouds from the kitchen window as we ate lunch yesterday, deep in thought and transfixed. Finally he spoke up, "Mommy, what is outside the clouds?" What a profound question, I had to think of a good answer or another deep question to counter that.

"Well, what do you think?" I had to buy myself more time.
"Blue" That's a good answer from AJ.
"That's right, the sky is blue. Above the earth is the atmosphere, that's the air we breathe"
AJ is still staring.
"And outside the atmosphere is space, outer space" I add more information.
"Do astronauts live in space?" AJ asks.
"Yeah, perhaps on a space ship. What's your favorite planet, AJ?"
"uh... Mars!" After giving it some thought.
"And what else?" I'm trying to quiz him because he has a book about planets and at one time, Maggie and AJ could name all of them.
"Pizza Planet!" We all laugh, this is pretty clever response too. It is from his favorite movie, Toy Story.

Brian goes on to explain to AJ that his classmate from school is an astronaut. While I don't necessarily believe that AJ would choose that profession, I think it's ok to encourage him to dream big and think about science. Though I know with his peanut allergy and mild intermittent asthma, I doubt they would ever choose him either. We're talking about exploring space, and for whatever reason Maggie feels the need to jump into the conversation.

"When I grow up, I want to be a garbage girl" Say what?
AJ counters, "When I grow up I want to drive a garbage truck!"

Alright, we'll start with cleaning up planet earth.

Doomsday the Last Day

AJ is quite the little Doomsday prophet. He's been on antibiotics (penicillin) for a small tooth infection for the 10 day cycle. I told him yesterday as I was feeding him the fourth dose of the day, "Tomorrow will be the last day."

His face turns dark and mysterious, "The last day of what? What will be happen? We're all going to be die?"
I have to clarify, "No AJ, the last day for your medicine"
He's still not listening, "What, the last day of Ottawa? What will be happen?"

I wanted to say earthquakes, thundershowers, global warming, economic fallout. Not sure if he remembered this morning, but fortunately he didn't ask me or tell me, Today is the last day.

Natural Born Talent

Prenatal Suzuki
Although I wasn't the mom who strapped a tape player to my belly, transmitting vibrations of Mozart and Bach though the amniotic fluids, nor did I read hours of Shakespeare to my baby inside, I did play piano while practising for my daily routine.   I came across this topic for pre natal music training and here is a link for your own evaluation.

http://www.suzukiece.com/Pages/prenatal_and_baby.htm

What's the first sense a baby develops?
a) Hearing
b) Smelling
c) Touching
d) Tasting

Hearing is already developed in the womb. How amazing is that?

Believing in the power of early listening, I have to admit that I get this question wrong on the quiz at a friend's baby shower, I didn't realize the correct answer was C because honestly, I thought hearing development was that strong. The image of Will Ferrell on SNL bursting out a momma's womb speaking in rap...

A baby is born with all the following prior knowledge EXCEPT
a) Grasping a finger
b) Sucking
c) Understanding a foreign language
d) The ability to swim

Gobble Gobble Gobble!

Lincoln's favorite new word must be "Gobble, gobble, gobble..." as in the same sound that babbling turkeys'  make. He could have a long conversation with me, pointing and laughing at this and that and I would only pretend that I actually knew what he was saying.

Well that word took on a whole new meaning on Wednesday morning. He gobbled up something that babies should not be playing with. I'll start off with saying, thankfully he's fine and I'd have to credit Maggie for saving his life. 

I'm calm but still creeped out a little bit. Like the other day ("last morning" as AJ would say), Lincoln was happily playing with Russian nesting dolls with Maggie in her room while I was rushing to eat breakfast with AJ and get out the door. All of a sudden I hear Maggie screeching and crying, I thought she was getting her haired pulled or something; I ran upstairs, suddenly quicker cuz it was getting extremely hysterical. I saw Lincoln foaming/ barfing at the mouth and I soon figured out he was choking on the smallest russian doll! OMG!

Fortunately I was able to just grab it out of his mouth with my fingers and I didn't end up jabbing it in any deeper. OMG after that he was fine. I was still shaking all morning. Anywayz needless to say
I put all the small stuff away so I wont' choke my child. SCARY!

I'm just glad that Maggie alerted me to Lincoln being in danger because choking is silent! Afterward she said we should pray for Lincoln tonight because he almost died (sic). I don't actually think that would be the case cuz there's alot of CPR and even calling 911 and things like people would've done before it would come to that, but I feel bad that she was thinking that.