Magnets

Today we discovered the wonderful world of magnets.  Of course my daughter has encountered magnets before on the refrigerator, but we focused on them today.  We have a little magnet stick, and we tried out different things - blocks, our tummies, scissors, etc. - to see what would stick and what wouldn't.  "That's a magnet!" we would say when we found something that stuck, and "That's not a magnet!" when it didn't stick.  We made up a little song about magnets, which she loved.  We saw that some magnets stick with other magnets, some repel each other, some are strong and some are weak, etc.  She had a lot of fun just playing by herself with the magnets after awhile, too.

The Dropping Game

So when you drop things in a vacuum, everything falls at the same rate.  Since no one actually lives in a vacuum, though, I thought it might be fun to let my daughter experiment with dropping things and seeing what falls fastest.  We have some stairs with a railing, and we went part of the way up with 2 items at a time - like, a book and a wadded up piece of paper; a wadded up piece of paper and a flat sheet of paper; 2 balloons of different sizes; etc.  We asked, "Which will fall faster?" and then we'd drop them and see.  By the end, she was able to predict that smaller balloons fall faster than bigger balloons, which I thought was actually quite impressive.     

More Water Fun

We took a small bowl of water and some paper.  We tore the paper and listened to the sound -" "rrrrrip."  Then we soaked the paper in the water, and ripped it again - no sound!  Oh, she loved it.  We "took the sound away" for days.

Then we put a washcloth into the bowl, and when we picked it up the water was all gone!  We rung out as much as we could and did it again.  And we talked about how this is why we dry ourselves off with a towel after bath time - the towels take away the water.

Recognizing 11-20

I taught my daughter to count 1-20 using the Signing Time Counting Time DVD, and the we solidified it by counting as we would swing at the park.  And she learned to recognize visually the numbers 1-10 using her little number board books.  But for the longest time I couldn't figure out a way to get her to recognize 11-20.  Nothing I tried worked.  But this past week I had a breakthrough.  Not that the idea was incredibly brilliant - it is kind of mundane actually - but I was startled at how well it worked.

I cut a few regular sheets of computer paper into small flash card size rectangles.  Then I got out her little colored pencils.  She would choose a color and hand me the pencil, and I would write a number on one of the rectangles.  We did them in order, 1-20.  She paid almost no attention to the numbers as I wrote them after awhile, and she got bored half way through it (which has been the problem - her attention span won't last past 10).  

BUT, then we put TAPE (and she helped) on the back of the rectangle with the number 1 on it, and we taped it to her chest of drawers.  Then we put tape on number 2, and put it next to number 1.  After around number 10, she started rocking her teddy bear.  So I suggested letting the teddy bear put the number 11 up on the chest of drawers.  She thought that was a fun idea, and so she helped her teddy bear do it.  We put the 11 directly under the number 1, and I showed her again "11 is a one with a one in front of it."  Then teddy bear put up number 12 under number 2, and I showed her "12 is a two with a one in front of it."  I pointed the teddy bear's paw - "2" and "12," "2" and "12," "2" and "12."  My daughter's little head bobbed up and down as she followed the paw - it was adorable.  This worked all the way through 18, by which time she was rocking the teddy bear again.

I didn't know whether or not she had understood what we did.  She went back to the numbers again after a little while and started ripping them off the chest.  But then - the magic of these moments! - she ran up to me with a little rectangle, saying, "Mommy!  14 fell down!"  And sure enough, there in her hand was "14."  =)  

ABC Puzzles and Play Dough

I've been trying to come up with a new way of reviewing the ABC's with my daughter.  She's learned them all, but I've noticed that she forgets if we don't review them.  She's gotten bored with all the old techniques.  So the other day I got out some play dough and her Melissa and Doug's ABC puzzle board without the actual puzzle pieces.  I started smushing the play dough into the letters on the puzzle board, reviewing with her the names and sounds of the letters.  She loved it!  We had a really fun ABC review time.

Learning to Pray

My heart just swelled the first time I heard my daughter say a prayer.  I had been working on it with her, but it still came as a startle when she actually did it.  I keep her with me in the worship service on Sunday, and during the prayer time I whisper a really, really quiet prayer in her ear (while stuffing her mouth with Cheerios or a sippy cup on some of the tougher Sundays).  When the pastor is praying, I repeat the prayer with/for her in her ear.  During times of silent prayer I just make up a prayer in her ear to give her an idea of the general type of focus that the silence is for.  We also say prayers before each meal and before bed.  Well, shortly after we moved here she was fussy during bedtime prayers, and so I asked, do you want to thank God for the ocean?  (we had been at the beach that day).  To my surprise, she folded her hands and whispered, "Thank you for the ocean..."

Social Roles and Happy Work

I think my daughter is at a stage where she is learning, among other things, two really important aspects of living at 22 months of age: (1) social roles, and (2) how to feel and respond to different things when she is unsure. 

With regard to social roles, I've noticed that, for example, if Daddy cuts open the popsicle the first time she has one, she goes back to him to cut the next one open.  If Grandpa helps her with something, she goes back to him when she needs help with that thing.  And, since Mommy always puts her to sleep at night, Mommy is really needed at bedtime.  So that has me thinking, what are the social roles she is learning about herself?  It has been more tempting than ever since we moved to stash her away with toys, music, and activities to distract her when I need to get things done, but what is that teaching her about her role in the family?  I want her to learn that she has a contributing role in the household and then, later, in the world.  And she wants to contribute.  So I'm working on incorporating her, given her current capacities and the activities she finds the most joy in doing, into a real contributing role for our family.  One example of this is that I'm going to let her clear the table after meals.  It takes longer, but she LOVES doing it.  The other night my husband and I were just chatting away after dinner, and all of a sudden we realized that our daughter was taking my husband's plate off the table.  She took it to the counter, and then came back for more - our little munchkin cleared off the entire table.  And she loves wiping things with wet cloths, and so I need to become more mindful again about letting her wipe down the table after meals.  

As for the second point, I've noticed that she looks to me for how to respond in questionable situations.  Like, she sees something on the ground that looks interesting, but is it okay to touch?  So sometimes she points to it and declares, "Eww!!!!" looking to me for a response.  Or else she picks it up, glancing at me to see what I do.  Or with church, when we moved we had to start going to a new church.  The first Sunday, when we arrived at the strange place, she wasn't sure what she thought of being at a new church.  I tried to nurture the part of her that liked the church, though, and now she is happy to go there.  One thing I do not feel like I have done well is nurture within her a sense of joy in work.  I do not model this well - I don't like housework.  I don't do it cheerfully.  I don't do it grumpily, either, and I try to laugh and sing and be happy as we do it, but toddlers are amazingly perceptive, and I'm sure she's noticed that I'm inconsistent with getting things done, that I avoid the laundry, etc.  My parents did a really great job raising me in a lot ways, but this really wasn't one of them.  I want to do better for my child.  So one of the things I'm going to do is start our "school" time that we do in the mornings with a prayer I found in a little book we have of prayers from around the world:

Thank you, God, for this new day, 

For our work and school and play.

Please be with us all day long

In every story, game, and song.

May all the happy things we do

Make you, our Father, happy, too.