Prism Colors

The other morning I noticed on the floor a little spot in which the light from the window was making a rainbow.  Apparently our glass oil lamp was in just the right spot to act as a prism in front of the window.  I drew my daughter's attention to the colors magically appearing on the floor, and we started playing with it.  When we put our hands over it, the rainbow was on our hand!  When we stood between it and the window, it disappeared!  We sang our rainbow song (from Signing Time, My Favorite Things), pointing at each of the colors as we sang their names.  It was so much fun.  It gave me the idea to look for a less fragile prism - I obviously wasn't going to let my daughter play with the oil lamp.  I can put the oil lamp at strategic places, though, at certain times of the day when the light is just so (and when she isn't looking), and we can play with the fun rainbow. 

Bible Chapter Counting

As my daughter was waking up from her nap today, she noticed my Bible.  We opened it and she immediately pointed to the large number 2 marking a chapter number in Isaiah.  She exclaimed, "Two!"  That started our Bible chapter counting.  We went back to chapter 1 and counted along with the big numbers that marked the chapters (the little numbers that marked the verses were apparently too tiny to catch her interest).   It had never occurred to me to do this before, but it ended up being a really great activity.  We got to practiced counting, recognizing numbers, and we got to familiarize her with a little piece of the way the Bible works.

Teaching a Toddler to Share?

Several months ago I was meeting with a mom support group.  One of the moms asked about teaching sharing to her 18 month old.  I said what my husband and I had done with our daughter, which seems to have worked.  But then all the other moms insisted that young children cannot and should not be taught to share.  Sharing is not natural, they said, and toddlers definitely are not programmed to be capable of grasping the concept.  I was startled.  Today I was reviewing the sharing concept with my daughter, and she was really fussy about it.  She hasn't always been like that.  

I had taught her how to share in two parts.  First, we started at home.  She's an only child, and so she doesn't have any sibling competition.  So during music time one evening, my husband and I started taking turns with her playing with the sticks.  We did it to the rhythm of a song she knew.  During one semi-lengthy phrase of music, dad would get to play with them.  During the next phrase, she would.  During the next phrase, I would, and then back around again.  We did it to the music so that she would be able to predict how long she had to wait to get the sticks back.  She protested at first, but then she got the hang of it after a few rotations and became quite the eager sharer.

Second, I worked with her in the presence of other toddlers her age, who care far more than her dad or I who is playing with what.  I started with a 2 and a half year old, whose special doll my daughter wanted to hold.  I prompted the older child to share with this little baby (my daughter), and she unhappily but willingly complied.  I applauded this child's really, really good sharing, saying what a good sharer she is and what a big girl she is.  She was so happy to hear this, that she proceeded to get everything she could off the shelf to share it with my daughter.  Then my daughter, having seen and experienced this other child sharing with her, was happy to share right back.  I've done this in numerous settings now with other kids, and it always works once we get over the initial sharing hump.  

So I really thought this was all well and good until these mothers insisted that children cannot and should not be asked to share.  At first I just disregarded them, but then today when I was practicing taking turns with my daughter as we played with her toy horse, she was going nuts.  "NNNOOOOO!!!" she would squeal when it was my turn.  I pried the toy out of her hands a couple of times, certain she would get the hang of it, but it just made her madder, and I started to feel uneasy about insisting on taking it from her.   And I noticed that she was getting in the habit of handing me the toy for my turn, then not letting go of it and throwing a fit when I reached to take it, but insisting that I reach to take it if I decided not to...  And she's not really consistent with sharing anymore when we're with other kids.  

So I really want to know whether or not to continue to pursue the sharing skill.  I think the music teaching went really well, and maybe we should review it that way more often.  Maybe the problem is that I just assumed, "Okay, now she shares," and didn't review it enough in general.  But I really want to know from other homeschooling moms who are intentionally teaching social skills to their children whether or not sharing is something to work on for a 20 month only child.  

  

Nurturing a Love for Work

One of the things the Montessori approach to education rightly points out is that children naturally like to work.  Not fake work, but real work.  I remember as a child having toy kitchen sets and such, but these were not nearly so exciting to me as the thought of working in the real kitchen.  Of course, things can go a lot slower for a mom with an 18 month old "helping" in the real kitchen, but I know that if I wait until she is 6 or 7 to start asking her to help, she will have to form the habits and skills of real work without the magical attraction she is naturally experiencing right now.  So these are some of the activities we do together around the house to satisfy and nurture her love for work.  

1.  Laundry.  She LOVES putting things into baskets, and so she helps me put the clothes from the closet into the laundry basket.  Then we drag the basket together to the laundry room (this requires some maneuvering, because stairs are involved, but we make it work).  She hands me the clothes piece by piece and I put them into the washer.  (This typically only lasts through about 5 pieces of clothing before she begins to explore other parts of the laundry room, and because the point is for her to LIKE it, I don't push her too much).  She also helps me take the clothes out of the dryer and put them into the basket again.  We drag the basket to the living room, where I fold the clothes, and then she carries them to put them into the proper closet or chest of drawers (with me right beside her, otherwise the clothes have been known to end up in places like the cabinet below the sink in the bathroom).

2.  Kitchen.  Before dinner, she helps set the table by putting one napkin at each spot.  After dinner, if her dad or someone is with me, he will give her one item off the table at a time to bring to me, and I receive it and put it away.  She gets such a kick out of this, which makes it more fun for me, as well.  I also give her a wipe rag and she helps wipe a little section of the table for me.  (Then she'll, like, take the rag and wipe the carpet with it or something).  When making dinner, she gets little jobs.  Like, when we make something with pasta, she gets to pour the pasta into the water (I hold and guide her hand carefully).  When making pizza crust or bread, she gets to help pat and squeeze the dough (and give it kisses for added sweetness).  

3.  Vacuuming.  She LOVES vacuum time.  I've never vacuumed so much in my life as I do with my toddler around, because she likes it so much and it is such an easy way of keeping the living area from getting too messy.  I just say, "Let's vacuum!  Pick everything up off the floor!  Up!  Up!  Let's clean up!"  I mostly pick the stuff up, but I will also point to a specific toy, tell her where it goes, walk with her to the location, point to the location, and watch her put it there.  She helps me pull the chairs away from the dining room table, one by one, so I can clean under there.  Then she plays on the chairs or with some toy she found while we were picking things up while I vacuum, and when I'm done she helps pull the chairs back where they go.  

I would love to learn how other people have their toddlers help around the house!   

Pillow Shapes

One of my daughter's favorite games we use for reviewing shapes is the pillow shapes game.  We arrange 4 square pillows so that their corners are touching, counting 1, 2, 3, 4, and then - Look! Together their inside sides form the shape of a square!  We do the same thing with 3 pillows, and - Look! They make a triangle!   If you take 2 square pillows and 2 rectangle pillows and put their corners together - A rectangle!  We have fun jumping on the pillows, throwing them in the air and letting them land on our heads, and singing our shapes songs during this activity, as well.  Tons of fun.

Obstacle Course

Today I didn't really feel like going outside, but my daughter still had energy to burn.  So I made an obstacle course in our living room.  First she had to climb a mountain of pillows.  Once she reached the top, she could wiggle her way onto two kitchen chairs I had set up facing each other.  Once on the chairs, she sat down, and I sang, "Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, Humpty Dumpty had a great...." (she prepared herself) "FALL!" and she scooted off of the chairs and onto a pillow on the floor.  Next came Daddy's trunk, which served as a step onto the next pair of kitchen chairs, where we did Humpty Dumpty again.  Then, having successfully navigated the path, I had her run, run, run back to the beginning to do it again.  The only problem with this activity was that, as she got creative with it, she wanted to add other obstacles that I didn't feel like adding.  I was pretty low energy today.  If I had felt better, that probably wouldn't have been that big of a deal.  As it was, she LOVED the activity.

Water Drops

My daughter loves playing with water.  Her favorite water game is scoop-the-water, which I wrote about below.  But another game we enjoy is the water drop game.  I take a medicine dropper and fill it with water.  Then I squirt a couple drops of water onto different types of surfaces, and we see what happens to the water when it touches the surface.  When it touches non-porous surfaces, like on some of her hard toys, it leaves a circular drop!  When it touches porous surfaces, like certain fabrics, it disappears, leaving behind a wet circle!  If she were older, I'd ask her to guess, "What do you think will happen to the water when it touches this surface?" before doing a new surface, but she's not ready for that, yet.  We just have fun watching the water drops.