Happy 4th Birthday Eaton!

 

 

OOO Spiderman pinata had lots of goodies for everyone!

Sunset that night was amazing...

 Happy New Year Everyone!

Montessori Sand Tray

Last 2 weeks is all about writing letters on sand. Montessori Sand idea is very appealing to young kids. Eaton loves doing that now. Because Nathaniel is always around I put some salt into another tray just for him. Eaton started to draw printed letters too. I never gave him printed letters to trace before but he had plenty visual stimulation from books.

I don't correct him with drawing, I want him to explore and see his mistakes by himself.

It's all about shaking that tray! (I need to change a tray as this bump is coming out all the time that leaves the empty spot in the middle of the tray).

                                                         

Recent Activities In Pictures

Math:Combination. How many different towers can you build from 3 different colors blocks?

Making Collage-Racetrack

Oversize Puzzle

3 D Puzzle

Drawing Chinese Characters For Each Day-at least that's what he said ;-)

Practicing Polish Language With Blocks

Life Science: Plant Life Cycle

Math/Logic: Shrinking Pattern

Handwriting And Shape Drawing and Cleaning up (he is getting better with clean up time:)   

Building With Place Value Blocks-Transformers need to have their headquarter built.

Another Marshmallow Project

Tangram Is The Best! Eaton starts to create his own pictures. This is one of them-Combustion  Machine. It reminds me a dog though ;-)

Decorating Mini Christmas Tree

Walking On A Line With A Spoon And A Ball-Practicing Balance

Number Balance Scale And YES/No Game-practicing addition

Play With Gears And Chain 

Another Play Time with Construction Toys

Another Headquarter For Transformers:He practiced his "shaka" sign

Cutting And Stamping Activity

Practicing Zig-Zag Pattern: black, grey and blue is his favorite color

Making Homemade Playdough

Building Symmetrical Objects

Enjoying A Ride With His Brother Nathaniel

Magnetic Shapes

This magnetic shape set I purchased few years back when Eaton was very little. At the cashier lady reminded me that this set is good for 6 years old children as the box had huge number 6 on the top right corner. I'm not sure who is responsible for decisions like that. But I'm sure that they deprive children of having lots of fun before  year six;-) Eaton had fun with them for the last 2 years. At this point he looks at these shapes as not only magnetic pieces but actual shapes, how they connect together, what other shapes he can create from them, patterns etc. He explains a lot: he talks when he builds stuff so I "see" his thinking pattern and it's easier for me to direct him. For example he started to connect all these triangles. 

 Then he said: "Mommy, look, this is a giant hexagon!" We counted sides and there were 6 of them. "What if we connect squares to all of these sides?" he asked himself. He attached 2 layers of squares, and then there was  a little silent... he was thinking.. I suggested: "What if we put these squares up?" and he did. Somehow he had this AHA moment that from flat shapes he can create 3D architecture, even though we did build stuff like that before. I think that he perceives shapes differently now. We go to park and he points to shapes around him. He talks about them whenever we go. 

Eaton spends lots of time creating, constructing all kind of stuff from educational toys we have. 

Does it reminds you Colosseum? ;-)

Enjoy your week?

New Eaton-Haircut

Before haircut

After haircut

For the first time Eaton decided by himself to have a haircut! He doesn't  like a raiser's sound and even last time hubby needed to finish cutting his hair because Eaton started to delay that. Anyway it ended up not so bad with one long hair on his forehead, but he doesn't allow to touch it now ;-)

OOO  KIDS;-)

Worksheets-Update

Until now we used a simple white binder for Eaton's daily worksheets. Because I wanted him to be more excited during our work I decided to print out some transformers and glue them to the binder but instead of that Eaton picked one folder at a Target the other day. He said "I really like these stairs", so we got that for him. 3D?! Who would thought about that;-)

I divided folder into 5 days: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday during which we always do worksheets. 

In the left side packet of the binder I put some "Cut and Paste" sheets.  Whenever Eaton is ready to use them he has easy access to them. (Scissors and glue are in different place).

At the end of the binder I put all the mazes for a week. I always have more of them just in case. Eaton has those moments where he is very strongly engaged into doing mazes, and he can do many of them in one day.

I don't put many pages into binder anymore like I did before. I keep few pages up to 6-8 maybe. Eaton doesn't like repetitions, he learns pretty quick and he doesn't need to review materials. 

This is what I include in worksheet binder-Eaton almost 4 years old. 

1. Drawing page from the book: "Follow The Directions & Draw It All By Yourself" by Kristin Geller.

2. Mammoth Math worksheet page from Grade 1-A Work text Light Blue Series.

3."Lollipop Logic"

4. "Tracing" Preschool Activities. These pages are pretty good. Lines that Eaton needs to follow are pretty narrow. He practices his handwriting movements a lot. Recently, he requested a new  fine pen in order to follow lines.

5. Handwriting page I create. Practicing cursive.

6. Word search-various pages printed out from Internet.

7. Some foreign language related worksheets.

I was a little bit sceptical about new setup of worksheets because Eaton is so easy distracted by anything around and I thought he would be flipping pages of different days. That actually happened on the first day with a new binder, but I insisted to follow days first and then if he is still interested he can do pages from different days. He agreed! And.. he follows that method.

What I like about Eaton is that even though he is not 4 years old I can make agreement with him. If there is something that I don't want him to do for a different reason (usually in order to keep boundaries) I try to make agreement with him and he likes that way. I give him a choice and he picks the one he is comfortable with. I don't give him a choice like: OK, you can do this way or not at all! ;-) that would be silly but I usually try to understand why he wants to do his way, first, and then appropriately to that I come up with 2 choices that are comfortable for both of us and to keep that boundaries in mind. 

Have a wonderful day EVERYONE!

Gymnastic Time

Since Eaton's second birthday we have attended gymnastic at our local Kona Aerial Gymnastic place. 
When Eaton was a little baby he never wanted to try going on a swing. I tried few times but it always ended up with lots of cry, so of course I didn't push. We had lots of physical activities during his first 2 years at different parks, beaches and at the backyard of our houses. When I heard about gymnastic I wasn't sure if Eaton was ready, but the class was for toddlers where they were free to do whatever they wanted using all the equipment that was there. We went there once and Eaton was in love. It's been 2 years of running around, jumping, climbing and being silly. I don't regret that decision as Eaton improved a lot physically.  He didn't want to try a trampoline for a while either. The first thing he did for a while there was running. He did run, run and run. He still does that with other kids and his little brother. But few months ago he started to jump on a trampoline too. I wasn't sure what was the cause Eaton didn't like swinging or trampoline. His balance wasn't so developed I think, but after 2 years of attending gymnastic he improved and he is not scared anymore. He tries and tries. But the main thing is that he has lots of fun there. It seems like he waits for that time-(once a week) for releasing that energy. Although, I can tell you he is always EVERYWHERE,no matter where he is. He used to take a nap after gymnastic time. At this point he sometimes takes naps during the day but it's later during the day.

There are other gymnastic classes available but Eaton doesn't want to do that. It's more strict class where a child needs to wait for his turn, listen a teacher, follows her directions and Eaton seems not to be ready for it.
You can see my kids in action over here: Eaton 3,5 years old, Nathaniel 19 months.





Gymnastic time is always finished with parachute time and all kids get some peekabear stamps on their bellies. Children love that part of the class :-)

                             

                            

Eaton doesn't waste his time, whenever he can he plays with blocks.

I didn't tell you that we also tried Karate class with Eaton. Yeah, that was interesting. The Karate Class for toddlers was more about discipline, applying rules of martial arts at the same time having a good time playing around: jumping, skipping, playing games. Eaton was scared of the coach voice. The man had deep voice and he talked pretty loud, almost like screaming. At first it looked like it's a booth camp class for toddlers. Eaton told me "Mommy can you be a coach? I don't like that man". He wanted to leave that place after 15 min so we did. 
At least we try different things. I guess martial art is not his ideal activity;-)
Enjoy your weekend!