Hope you’ve had a good week. Our week started off quite slow as Floss was feeling a little under the weather. I’ve been working on giving our days in the house, when Floss isn’t feeling well, a little more rhythm to them, so that they flow more like any other day.
It’s still in the development stages, but I’ll be sure to fill you in once we’ve got something. The end of the week has been very blustery here and Floss has really enjoyed watching the trees move in the wind. We also found a butterfly, well it found us and landed on me. Floss was fascinated, so I’m going to change the themed shelf from the ocean theme (click to check out the Ocean Theme Shelves here) to a butterfly/ insect/ nature shelf next week.
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This week was our second week going to a Steiner parent and child group. Floss has always enjoyed nature and loves to collect treasures that she finds outside; this group is really helping to foster that. One particular aspect she loves of this group is snack time. Each child is given a small tea cup with ‘fairy tea’.
Last week the water was infused with lemon balm and this week peppermint. All week Floss has noted when we have made tea, said the word tea very enthusiastically and wanted to join in drinking tea, so lovely to nurture these social opportunities.
The Grimms Rainbow still remains, but has been split up this week as it’s been used as separate pieces much more. Please excuse me in the mirror balls. Floss is obsessed with them and I just couldn’t photograph them without getting me in the picture! Something Beginning with Blue is the firm favourite of the week – I’ve given up counting how many times I’ve read it. This is the first book that Floss has started to say what will be on the next page before we get to it.
Just a little update for Nov 22 to say Floss has become a huge fan of Nick Sharratt. I’ve also found his books so good to use in the classroom and with EAL learners (English as an Additional Language Learners). If you’d like to know more about books suitable for EAL leaners head to my blog post – Teaching English as an Additional Language – EAL – Ukrainian Learners here.
Dear Zoo is one of the ultimate childhood books. I don’t know anyone who hasn’t heard of it. It’s always in our book area and Floss goes through phases of returning to it. This week has been one of those times. It started off with us playing hide and seek with the animals. We shared the story together and each time we found an animal in the book she went off to find where I had hid that animal around the room. Then came the puppets and the puzzle pieces and the animals being transported everywhere!
I’ve had a couple of people ask me where the puppets are from. Sadly, I got them a few years ago and can’t find where to get them from now. However, you can get some of the characters here in this set by The Puppet Company. The wooden animals are by Lanka Kade.
We’re seeing real changes in Floss ability to cope with emotions and those of others through the time we are spending looking at feelings. This week we’ve been focusing on happy, sad and shy more as these are the ones that she relates more too. The Hape Eggs have been having little baths in the Grimms Natural Bowls and sliding down the Grimms Rainbow.
If they make it they’re usually happy, but sometimes they fall off and are left feeling a little sad! I wasn’t sure whether I was introducing looking at feelings too soon a couple of weeks back. However, when you plan what you are doing around your observations of your little one you don’t often get led wrongly and this has certainly been true.
Floss has always enjoyed conical stacking towers and has become quite proficient in placing the pieces onto the stick. She’s not so fussed about putting them in order yet, but will sit and thread them on time and again. It’s not challenging for her, but she definitely enjoys it. Dexterity is a strength for her, so I wanted to give her a bit more of a challenge along a similar line.
A shape sorter is perfect opportunity to develop her fine motor control and you can see the level of concentration on her face as she threads.
As always, Floss is still into balls. However, she’s begun to show an interest in things that move with wheels and things that can easily travel down a slope. So, the final shelf this week has some Lanka Kade vehicles, a Brio Police Car and the Grimms Rainbow to travel over. Ball v. wheels – who will win?