Preschool Music Lessons

 Archer (35 months) has always been the kid that sings all day long. Sometimes they're real songs, sometimes it is just random singing. For a while now, he has been interested in the piano, probably because big brother takes lessons. A couple of weeks ago, he decided he wanted to be able to play Twinkle Twinkle. I dug out an old book with letters written by the notes and a key guide and started showing him how to play (it definitely helped that he has been obsessed with letters his whole life). It took effort and determination, but could eventually play some of the song. My husband witnessed this and said that we need to do something to support this interest. My crazy early education self was on it!

I ended up signing up for a 30 day free trial of Prodigies (I'm not an affiliate, so I gain nothing by sharing with others). Both kids enjoyed the rhythm songs and it became our routine to do some lessons after breakfast.

Archer usually just watches, but will sometimes sing, sign or play along with the videos. (You can buy stickers for the piano that coordinate with the lessons, but I have not done it yet). 

We tried some of the worksheets from the website, but Archer was not too interested.

What struck me was how often he was singing these songs randomly during the day. One day, he had some colored gears and was using them to sign and sign Do, Re, Mi. That was enough for me to decide this kid really enjoys learning music, so two weeks in I decided to order him some desk bells.

I ended up ordering the Rhythm Band Bells through Amazon instead of going through Prodigies, because they're made by the same company, they were a little cheaper and for $10 I could buy a 4 year protection plan. 

His bells came and he was super excited! I hope the excitement and interest continue and am looking forward to where we go from here.

When Early Learning Kid Hits Public School

Hello!  Remember me?  Life has been crazy, hence the silence around the blog.  I taught a new class this year, so all of my free time went to that.  Sadly, I barely got to do any fun learning activities with Xander, and when I did, I forgot to take pictures and blog.  I'll try to be better. :)

Anyway, since a lot of my blog focuses on early education, I figured I'd give an update as to what happened when Xander hit school.  This was his first official year in public school (we did preschool last year, but he was only there a couple hours a day and learned pretty much nothing).

In preparation for Xander entering kindergarten, I had contacted the principal last spring to address some of my concerns about having a kid who could read and do math enter kindergarten.  The principal pretty much wanted me to wait until summer to do anything.  In the summer I contacted both him and the teacher and was told we'd just wait til school started.  Two weeks after school started, and Xander was coming home having "learned" a letter a day, I contacted the teacher again and some meetings and evaluations were eventually set up.  We met and some fantastic ideas were discussed, but nothing was really implemented, so I kept pestering.  Basically, it was a long road to get to a place where we could address Xander's learning needs.

His evaluations came back showing that he was doing 2nd grade math and has a 5th grade reading fluency, so obviously a letter and number a day were just not appropriate.  In November it was finally decided that we should move Xander to 1st grade.  This involved changing schools (within the same district), but was felt to be a better fit.  Xander only missed the age cut off by about 6 weeks, so while he is now young for his grade, he's still fairly close in age to his peers.  It seems like the best balance for him.  He'd be much more challenged than in kindergarten, without it being too big of an age jump.  Also, it allows him to learn the process of school.

He's now been in 1st grade for a couple of months and likes it pretty well.  The teacher works really hard to meet each student where they are and the principal is very easy to work with as well.  He's grouped with the more advanced kids for their MTSS time, so is working on STEM skills and currently doing a research project.  He's getting challenged well in grammar also.  I am not 100% sure how I feel about his math placement, but overall I think his needs are being met the best they can at the moment.  He's learning science and social studies and really enjoys music, art and gym.  He gets along well with his peers and enjoys school.

1st Day at the new school!

  I'd LOVE to do more fun learning activities from home and have tons of ideas for them.  Xander would like that too.  Someday I will work more normal hours and maybe be able to do some afterschooling.  For now, we still use many iPad apps and Xander does some CLE lessons from time to time.

I still have absolutely no regrets about teaching him young, despite the initial stress of this school year.  Our learning time together was always intended to be fun and never took too much of his day.  He had plenty of time to play.  More than teaching him anything specific, I think I taught him how to learn.  He LOVES to read and drinks in stories, characters and information.  He has fantastic recall and figures things out quickly.  He likes learning and being challenged.

More than that, looking back at the pictures from when he was little, early education gave us SO many memories.  While he may not remember every art project, game or activity, having that time focused on just him is invaluable to both of us.  I'm incredibly grateful for that time and wouldn't trade it for anything.

Christmas morning he was surrounded by a pile of toys and the first thing he wanted to do was read.  Proud mama!

Starting Piano

Today I did our first official piano lesson with Xander!  Yes, I know, I'm a little behind, but better late than never, right?  Now of course, I'd set him up with some background since he was little.  Your Baby Can Discover went through some notes and timing, although I doubt he remembers them.  He also loves Trebellina and Suzie's Piano Primer.  Recently he's been playing Piano Maestro on the iPad and has really wanted to learn to play.  What better time than when he's seriously interested?

While I considered doing formal lessons, it just isn't in the budget at the moment, so I will start teaching him myself.  I decided to start with John Thompson's Easiest Piano Course Part 1.  It starts incredibly basically, but I'm hoping it will provide a good foundation.  We might just go through the first book quickly.  I have a couple of Teaching Little Fingers to Play books ready to go for when he's ready!  Tonight we went through the first several pages, and he didn't want to stop.  I figure that's a good sign.

I'm interested to learn what other parents have done to teach their children piano.  Are there apps, movies or books you recommend?

How I Taught My Baby To Read

I FINALLY caught Xander reading on camera!  I have been wanting to for a while, but he isn't always cooperative when a camera is out.  I was thrilled to get him in the right mood!  I am so proud of my little guy and how well he is doing!  Anyway, I recently posted it to my personal Facebook account and had some inquiries as to how we did it, so I thought I would share.

Xander is 26 months in the video

Let me preface this by saying that I understand that there are plenty of people out there that will criticize me for teaching my baby to read.  I've heard a variety of arguments from "let them be babies while they can" and "he will be bored in school."  I have my list of counter arguments, including that my son will not be one of the 40% of kids who struggle to learn to read in school, but ultimately, its a personal choice, just like choosing cloth or disposable diapers is a choice.  I am not saying this is what all parents should do, just what we did.

How We Did It

Really, I did a variety of things with him and I think it is likely all contributed to him being able to read so well for his age.  There was no drilling or testing.  The whole process was easy and fun for both of us.

Immersion:

I knew I wanted Xander to love books, so I made an effort to make books and words a part of life from the time he was very young.  As soon as he was mobile, I made sure he always had access to books by setting out board books on a low shelf.  Now that he is older, he has a shelf of books on every level of the house, which I can rotate as needed.  I read to him frequently.  If the font on the page is big enough for him to see, I run my finger under the words as I read them.  We make frequent trips to the library and completed a 1500 Book Challenge just last month.

On top of reading a ton of books, I have also made sure he is always exposed to words.  As a baby he watched Your Baby Can Read movies and I did some high speed flashcards with him.  He also watched Your Baby Can Discover.  Now that he is a little older, he has moved on to the Your Child Can Read movies.  I don't think any of these movies could have taught him to read as much as he does, but I do think they gave him some great exposure (and let me get a shower every day.  Single mom, remember?).

Little Reader:

When Xander was an infant I read How To Teach Your Baby To Read by Glenn Doman, which introduced me to the idea of high speed flashing.  While I didn't follow Doman's exact plan, I did stick with the whole word approach and the flashing method.  Basically, you show the child each word as you say it (cheerfully) very quickly, no more than two seconds each.  The words should be in lowercase, with the exception of proper nouns, because that is what is most prevalent in written language.  The words also need to be large enough that young eyes can interpret them instantaneously.  

I started making my flashcards on poster board with giant red markers, but soon learned that they were time consuming to make and I was clumsy with the big flashcards.  Then I ended up finding Little Reader, which is probably the best investment I have ever made as far as early education. Then I printed most of my flashcards from there.  I tried to flash him a set of words daily, but did not quite have the time to follow a good, consistent schedule.  

When Xander was about 15 months we really started working on reading through Little Reader.  It is a program that teaches reading and vocabulary in a method very similar to that described by Doman, only it includes pictures and videos as well.  It comes with about a year of premade lessons, but you can also make your own and parents can share them through the forums.  Each lesson takes less than five minutes, and they recommend doing two lessons a day.  Xander only does one of the premade lessons a day and then I try to do some category flashing with it.  I turn the audio and video off and flash through a category of words as fast as I can while still being clear.  It takes about 30 seconds to do a category.  I have also made categories of words and pictures to go with his interests.  Since he loves Thomas and has a ton of Thomas books, I made a category to teach him all of the trains' names.  Recently I started flashing him sight words, which has really improved his reading skills.  He likes going through all of the categories so much, I will often do them multiple times for him at a sitting.  For older words he already knows, I just turn on autoplay and let him watch while I clean or get something quick done.  It used to take him longer, but now he can learn a new category of words is less than a week of flashing.  I can't make new categories nearly as fast as he can learn them!

Reinforcement:

I try to make games to reinforce a lot of the words he has learned.  We play matching games with toys, flashcards or 3 Part Cards, which he loves  (you can download the ones I've made here).  We also use little plastic animals to play with his Sight Words Zoos (description about halfway down on this page).  We jump on words or act out words.  While none of these games actually teach him the words, they do serve as fun reinforcement.

Jumping on the words as I call out an animal name.

When we're reading books together, I have started having him read the words he knows.  Some books, that means every word.  If he is tired or not in the mood, I will definitely still read to him.  What blows me away is when he reads words I never actually taught him.  There are a lot he has figured out just from being read to .  While I'm not sure all of those words would transfer to other contexts, reading in context is still a valuable skill.

All in all, I did my best to set him up with the best learning environment possible.  I spent 5-10 minutes a day flashing him words, but only if he was in the mood and wanted to see them.  I encouraged him and gave him the opportunity to learn.  It totally paid off.  While he still can't read everything and isn't completely smooth, I am thrilled with how well he is doing.  If I can teach my baby with my crazy schedule, anyone can!

My Miraculous Moment

Do you ever have some of those miraculous life moments that just stops you in your tracks and makes you think "wow"?  I had one of those this week and wanted to share.

Ok, so maybe it wouldn't be such a big deal to everyone else, but keep in mind the stage of life I am in.  I am a single mother commuting (about 1.5 hrs on each end) to grad school.  Needless to say, time and money are severely limited.  However, when I was pregnant and my marriage/life crumbled around me, I swore to my then-unborn child that no matter how difficult things became, it would not affect the type of mother he had any more than absolutely necessary.

When Xander was about 4 months old I read How to Teach Your Baby Math by Glenn Doman, followed by How to Teach Your Baby to Read, How Smart is Your Baby, and a few others.  Those books changed my life  (Xander's life) and opened the door to early education.   My readings lead me to find the forum at BrillKids.com, right brain education, and many more amazing resources and blogs (1+1+1=1, Doman Inspired Parenting, and Gentle Revolution Homeschooling, to name a few).  I also ended up finding out that one of my old friends from high school, Mellissa, had taught her boys to read really young using Doman.  While being in my situation prevented me from implementing all of the techniques Doman developed or a real right brain program, I was able to do some flash cards and start doing Tot School activities.  I made the big decision to invest in Little Reader (huge time saver) and also eventually purchased Your Baby Can Read and Your Child Can Read.  Anyway, long story a little shorter, I made the decision to invest what time and money I could into Xander's education.

Well this week I found out that my time isn't being wasted.  My baby can read.  Since I try hard not to test Xander, I had had no idea.  We were coloring his shape coloring worksheet, just like we do every week, but this week, I decided to switch it up a bit.  Normally, I just let him pick a marker/crayon and point to the shape that says that color for him.  This week I gave him the green marker and asked "where is the green cross?"  He pointed right to it, so I cheered and gave him the marker to color.  Thinking it might just be a coincidence, I repeated it with the next marker.  He did it again, and continued pointing to the correct shape for blue, red, yellow, pink, gray, orange, and black.  (Purple and brown he switches, but consistently).  Anyway, I cheered and cried and hugged him (and maybe cried some more and called to share with my family).  I knew other people had taught their young children to read and do other amazing things, but that was different.  That was them.  This was MY baby.  My baby could read!  I mean I knew that he was smart and was obviously benefiting from our activities, but for some reason READING feels like more concrete proof that my time/resources actually had some positive result, other than just good together time.

Anyway, since then, I have discovered that he can read most of the shape names, many of the service vehicle names, and some body parts.  Also, other common words like mommy and baby.  Since he can't actually say most of these words, I have made these discoveries through games and play, so still do not know what all he can read.  It seems like every day is a new discovery.  I am so incredibly blessed to have gotten to spend all of this great time bonding with my little guy and am excited to continue as long as we can.  Can't wait to see what he will surprise me with next!

Waving

Last Thursday Xander learned to wave.  Now he does it all the time, even waving to people in the grocery store.  He gets a kick out of his accomplishment, as do I.  Sometimes he gets over excited and waves with both hands. We are also working on clapping, but he isn't nearly as consistent with that.

My Baby Can Read!

Excuse the cliche, I was just excited.

In our house we follow the principle that learning is and ought to be fun.  Lessons are done joyfully and skipped if we are in poor spirits.  Xander is praised continuously.  One of the main benefits of our lessons is the bonding experience.  Because of this philosophy, we do NOT test.  The knowledge is for him, not me.  I present him with plenty of material but never ask him "what does this say?" and expect him to product an answer  Not that he could answer anyway, but you get what I mean.  Putting him on the spot like that would add pressure and take away the fun.  However, from everything I have read, playing an assessment "game" every once in a great while is acceptable.

Well now that he is 8 months old I was thinking he is more than capable of pointing.  I got out two word flash cards (eye and nose) and asked where one was to see what he would do.  He ended up looking at them both for a few seconds then grabbing the correct card, to much praise of course!  Well he grabbed it with his right hand (seems to be the dominant one at the moment) and it was closer to his right hand, so I decided to try again.  This time I used "eye" and "hair" but asked him to find the one that was on his left side.  He still used his right hand but grabbed the correct card anyway!  We did a happy dance together and I did a good job of not crying with pride!

I know they are silly little words.  I know that I chose words to which he had quite a bit of exposure (YBCR, LR, and Doman style flash cards).  I know there could be plenty words he has been taught that he won't recognize and that he is no where near ready to pick up a book and understand its contents.  It doesn't matter.  I am still absolutely over the moon.  It is nice to think that at least some of the time and energy I have been putting in for the last five months is paying off.  I am so grateful that I have been able to work with him and am excited to continue!

Unexpected Milestone

In the last few days I have really noticed Xander blossoming and developing.  He is so curious and wants to learn and understand everything around him.  He doesn't want to miss a thing.  It has even started interrupting his meals, which if you have been following the posts, are the most important parts of his day!

Most outside people would think he is just unhappy, but when he sees something new or interesting he gets a very serious face, concentrating hard.   Today I was playing rhythms for him on the drum and he just stared and stared trying to understand the patterns.  In between patterns he would coo, babble, and squeal, showing his delight.  He also had a ball attempting to beat the drum himself (although, like I said, looks very serious in the video.  I also think it was cute that he kept looking to me for approval and would get a huge proud grin when I would give it.  Sorry I didn't catch that).  He later attempted eating the mallet, banging the drum with his hands, using the mallet in his left hand, and banging the drum from the bottom rather than the top.  Quite the little scientist.

Then tonight, Xander surprised me again.  He is not a giggly baby.  He sometimes giggles when you tickle him a lot, but mostly shows delight or amusement by letting out an almost inaudibly high squeal.  Anyway, tonight he was watching one of his videos.  They were teaching about the differences between quarter, half, and whole notes.  As an example they were saying chick for quarter notes, goat for half, and cow for whole.  So they say "chick, chick, chick, chick, gooooat, gooooat, coooooooooooooooooooooooooooow."  Well apparently that was funny to his baby brain because Xander laughed out loud.  I have seen him talk to the tv before, but never laugh.  For some reason it really struck me as a sign of his growing up.

I guess I haven't written about Xander's movements in a while.  He is getting close to crawling.  He goes in circles on his belly a lot.  He can also go backwards relatively long distances, albeit unintentionally.  His arms are strong, so I am guessing army crawling will be soon.  He also can flip himself from sitting to his tummy in a way that would make any adult wince in sympathetic pain.  However, Xander's preference is to be standing all day.  If he is sitting near me, he will grab my hands in his to pull himself upwards.  If he is crabby, standing calms him down.  He isn't great at stepping, but he is pretty good at bouncing up and down.  I am excited for him to learn to crawl and walk, but completely unprepared for it at the same time!

A Crazy Week

Whew.  I have been wanting to write for a while, but had a crazy week.  This week was clinicals for the CNA course I was in, Xander had his first double ear infection, and I was staying at my dad's house every night.  Therefore, no sleep and no time to write.

I feel like in the five days away from my baby, he grew SO much.  We have pretty much done away with the sippy cup.  We have been using an open cup, which I hold.  He does amazing!  He still spills a lot when he tries to talk while drinking, but can drink without spilling a drop if he stays quiet.  Xander now grabs my hands while sitting and pulls himself up to standing, whether I want him to or not.  Today he started taking teeny tiny baby steps while hanging on to my fingers!  There were very few steps and they didn't produce much movement, but I still almost cried with pride.  (However, I still think he needs to learn to crawl first!)

Yesterday I watched Xander for a little bit while he was in his crib.  He was on his tummy and playing with a toy.  I couldn't believe how well he held himself up with one arm while manipulating the toy with the other!  Just last week he would have done many many face plants into the mattress to try to manipulate the toy.  It reminds me that I don't want to miss a minute because who knows what I will be missing!

On a related note, some of the people in my class, including the instructor, were telling me I should go back to med school like I had originally planned (pre Josh).  They couldn't understand why in the world I would ever want to "throw away" the opportunity if I was capable.  My response was that at the end of my life, when I look back, I will not regret not having become a doctor that much.  However, I would regret not spending every minute I could with my child (hopefully children).   I will never be rich, I won't have a huge house, fancy cars, or exotic vacations.  Regardless, I think my life will have much more meaning as a mother, a role I don't think I could play well as a full time single mother and med student.  It may be the "right" choice for some, but not for me.  I have made my peace with letting go of that lifelong dream in favor of the much more powerful dream.

Another Milestone!

I realize that traditionally, milestones at almost six months consist of mostly physical accomplishments.  However, I am equally excited about this one.  My baby is getting so big!  Today Xander had his first addition lesson!

Okay, well that is kind of a lie.  Technically, we have been doing an addition lesson every day for a few months. Since I show him Doman style dot cards and we show two new quantities and retire the two oldest every day, he should have some concept of adding a new object.  (We are almost done with dot cards!  81-90!)  However, today was the first time it was presented as 1 + 1 = 2.  Of course it isn't presented with numerals, but quantities.  We finally hit the addition section on his Little Math program!  By the way, he was VERY interested in it.  He cooed the whole time!  That little guy and his math!

I found some great little colored objects at a garage sale that I plan on using to help reinforce the mathematical concepts.  When he gets a bit older I can use Cheerios or raisins also.  I should do the Doman style equation lessons, but honestly, I am just too lazy.  Trying to dig through and set up 15+ equations to show him spread out throught every day is just a bit overwhelming.  Little Reader will just have to do.  I am excited to see how he approaches math when he gets older!

Book Challenge

A week an a half ago I wrote about the 1500 book challenge.  That weekend I made up a spreadsheet to help us keep tract.  My original goal was 100 unique books for his first year.  Well in the week or so I have been keeping track, we have already read 34 books, in addition to some I am not counting.  I am thinking of increasing our goal.  I think I will go to 250 for now, and possibly bump it up to 500.  It will get more challenging as we go, just because we do not have that many books!  We would have to make frequent library trips.  Anyway, we will see.

In other updates, Xander is sitting better and better everyday.  Yesterday and today I made him sit up to watch his YBCR.  He didn't seem to mind at all.  Soon, hopefully, I will eliminate the bouncer completely.  Probably a good thing, he is approaching the weight limit.

Unfortunately, now that he wants to sit all the time, it is even harder to get him to spend time on his tummy.  He cannot push himself up on all fours yet, but he is getting much better at reaching for things.  He rotates himself as he plays, and he does get some movement in.  Unfortunately, he usually pushes the toys he wants forward, out of his reach, and moves himself backwards, away from the toys.  Needless to say, this causes a lot of frustration.  I also notice the other night, while I had him on his back to dry him off after his bath, he was scooting himself backwards, sliding on his back.  I know it wasn't intentional, but it shows he is getting stronger.

Xander still LOVES his food.  We finally switched him to a bigger bottle.  He likes veggies better than fruits, but now eats about a third of a jar at a time.  It is nice to be able to give him more during each feeding; I have less crying to deal with.  He has tolerated every food well, except apples.  We are not doing them again for a long long time.  They really upset his tummy, and gave him diarrhea for a few days.  I am excited to be able to branch out to a wider variety for him!

Almost a Sitter!

For a while now Xander has enjoyed sitting in my lap.  He has always been pretty strong, but really wobbly.  The last week or two I have set him in front of me and he would sit on his own for 30 seconds to a minute.  Well yesterday I had him sitting on the play mat and he sat alone for long periods of time!  I do put the Boppy around him, or make sure I am there to catch him, because he still has accidents.  He tends to reach for things that are too far away and fall over.  Sometimes he also likes to push back on his legs and throw himself onto his back.  I think in another week or two he will be sitting solidly by himself!  I also don't think we have too long before he is mobile.  He really wants to be.  He wants to be able to grab everything in sight and gets so frustrated when he can't!

A Hard Day and New Discoveries

Yesterday was a hard day for me.  Xander went to day care for the first time.  It is a home day care with a wonderful lady I have known for years, but still, it was hard to let go.  Yesterday was only a partial day as a trial run.  I scheduled my CLEP test during the day for that purpose.  He apparently did pretty well.  She said he had one crying spell where he stuck out his lip and cried.  She said he looked so cute all the other kids came over to see what he was doing, which made him stop crying.  Once they started walking away again, she said he stuck the lip right back out and cried to get their attention.  The little stinker. :)

Next week he will start going all day, twice a week, while I complete my CNA classes (now required to get your RN).  Unfortunately, I also had my Microbiology class last night, so until 7:20 pm, the only awake time I had with him was spent feeding him.  Needless to say, I came straight home from class and spent the evening with him.  We read stories, played with his new ride on toy, and took a bath together.

Speaking of our bath, Xander has learned how to splash!  It is so funny to watch.  He smacks the water, but still jumps when he splashes himself.  We also worked on kicking his legs.  What he particularly liked was trying to play with his feet through the water.  Last weekend was particularly warm, so I had him in shorts and no socks.  As a result of bare feet, they are his new obsession.  He REALLY wants to get them to his mouth, but can't figure out how to do it from a seated position.  He ends up folding himself in half trying to get them in.

To encourage him to play with his feet, I put these rattle socks on him.  He thought they were great fun!

Xander now says mama, but I am not too excited because I know it doesn't count yet.  I think I have written before that he babbles when he cries.  Well, it has progressed into saying "mamamamamamamamama" when he cries.  I really need to try to capture it on video.  However, I know that when I show it to him in the future he will ask why I video taped him crying rather than seeing to his needs. :)

YBCR is still Xander's favorite, but he has decided he also likes Baby Signing Time really well now.  He watched it with my dad a couple of times last week.  My dad pointed out that Xander gets really excited about the word "milk."  I had had no idea he even knew what milk was yet, let along recognized the sign for it.  It makes sense, though, for a little boy who loves nothing more than to eat.

The Very Hungry Xander

You know the book, The Very Hungry Caterpillar?  Madelynn always loved it, and now Xander has a copy.  I think he likes the bright pictures.  Anyway, I can't help but think of my little guy every time I read that book.  My kid LOVES to eat.

A lot of the time, particularly in the evening if people are around and I'm using a nursing cover, he screams his hurting cry when I switch him from one breast to the other.  It takes less than a minute to rehook, unhook, and flip him, but gosh you'd think I was torturing him.  Lately, we have been giving him some baby food, just to try out tastes and textures.  I try to feed him either while I am eating breakfast or lunch, just so it feels more like "meal time."  Well, today I had him playing in his high chair (I know, when did he get old enough for that??) while I was making my lunch.  I got out his little bowl, spoon, and the jar of baby food while I was finishing up.  Well the little stinker saw it and apparently made the connection.  When I hadn't started feeding him within a couple of minutes, he started to cry.  Then he made cooing noises the whole time he ate, and cried and cried when he was done.  He was so upset that I wasn't giving him more, I called the nurse to ask if we could start increasing his portions.  He is only supposed to have 2-3 teaspoons a day at this point, so I was very relieved when she said we can slowly increase his portions, as long as we stick to one food at a time still.  I may need to make a trip to the grocery store!

"I got this, Mom.  I'll just feed myself."

I don't remember if I wrote about our play mats or not.  A couple of weeks ago I got a great deal on some floor mats (similar to these).  My carpet is thick, so Xander has trouble moving around on the floor.  If I put a blanket under him, he usually balls it up rather than accomplishing any movement himself.  He'd get frustrated, I'd worry about him developing enough muscles to move his ever increasing weight, and Toby would steal the blankets, so - floor mats.  Now that I have them, I don't know how I got by without them!  They came in 8 big puzzle pieces, so I put half together at my house and half at my parents house.  Since then, I've noticed a big change in his physical ability.  He can rotate around pretty well, particularly if he is mad.  He is getting better and better at holding his chest up, or reaching for a toy while propping himself up.  He still only rolls from front to back, but every once in a while he can scoot himself backward on his tummy.  On his back, he now pushes himself up with his legs, almost into a bridge position (without the arms over his head, of course).  He has a toy that plays music if you spin it, which he has figured out from the sitting position.  I put it in front of him while he was on his tummy to see what he would do.  It took a while, and a couple of face plants into the mat, but he has now mastered spinning the toy with one arm while supporting himself with the other.  Yesterday, he lay there and spun it for a good 20 minutes straight.

Oh, and today is Grandpa's birthday!

Sippy Cups

My baby is getting big!  I decided to try to introduce a sippy cup.  I by no means expect him to drink from one often, but thought every once in a while would be good to make the transition easier when the time came.  Also, I can't get him to drink water from a bottle, so I thought maybe he would drink it from a cup.  Anyway, I bought two different 4 month cups from the same brand.  One has easier handles, but is harder to drink from, having a stiff spout.  The other has no handles, but comes out a little more easily and has a softer silicone style spout.

He liked holding the first, but wouldn't really drink from it.  I tried the one with the softer spout and he seemed to like it.  Granted, most of the water ended up running down his chin, but he thought it was fun to chew/suck.  He made some fantastic faces, I wish I could have gotten on camera.  Hopefully he will be holding it on his own by the time summer comes.

Cute Quirks & Baby School updates

I LOVE this age.  Xander's personality is starting to show.  His smile makes me smile still, every time.  He squeals and giggles a lot.  Lately, he babbles all the time.  Even when he is upset.  He cries less than he "complains."  I can't understand what he is saying, but from the tone and facial expressions you know he is telling you just how unhappy he is about whatever it is.  He still makes his baby raptor noises, but has also started doing this little shriek.  At first it sounds unhappy, but you take a look at his face and he has this huge grin!  He loves trying out his vocal cords.

He also has some funny little habits.  For example, in order to suck his thumb, he first sticks two to three fingers and his thumb in his mouth.  Then he twists his hand until only the thumb is left.  He has also started reaching up behind his head, to either scratch the top of his head or just sit there and hold it.  It just looks funny since just lifting his arm straight up would get his hand to the same spot more comfortably.  Of course, I have tried to get a picture of it, but he quits whenever I try.

This kid also wants to walk so badly!  He wants to stand while I am holding him, not sit.  He also enjoys standing while I just hold under his hands to balance him.  Then he leans forward trying to GO.  Unfortunately, he has quite a while.  He also has no interest in crawling.  I've read that mastering crawling is important for balance and coordination, so I don't want him to skip it, but he just does not want to be on his tummy.  Regardless, I think I am in trouble when he finally is mobile.  I don't think he will ever stop moving.


Baby School

We've made some slight modifications to his early learning curriculum.

Reading:
He still watches YBCR every day.  We are on disc three.  He loves it!  In fact, when he got hurt the other day, all he wanted to do all night was watch it, back to back.  Our set only came with the first three, and I was debating not getting the fourth.  Well, I think I am going to have to now.  Although, I still think I will skip the 5th, since it is supposedly only a review of the first four.

We still do Little Reader twice a day, 5-7 days a week.  I am hoping to be able to customize it more once he gets a bit older and has more experience with things, and once I get some photo software.

We have started doing word flash cards daily now.  We have two sets of 5 words each that we show three times a day.  We add one word and subtract one word from each set every day.  I've chosen words that he has already seen through LR.  At first he wasn't too interested, but lately he has been enjoying these super quick word sessions.  Since each session only takes about 10 seconds, I'm hoping to eventually move this up to three sets a day.

Math
He still gets three sessions of 10 Doman style dot cards.  We retire two and add two every day.  Right now we are on 47-56.  He really enjoys them, usually squealing and "talking" the whole time.  As much as he enjoys them, it will be nice when they are done. I made them on 11x11 sheets of poster board, so they are hard to take along with us on outings.

We also do two Little Math sessions a day, usually 6-7 days a week.  He seems to like it better than reading.  Maybe I've got a little engineer on my hands?

Since he is too young to do any of his own shape sorting or puzzles, I hold him while I do some sort of spacial activity.  We don't have too many yet (like I said, he is too young), but he does like watching me put the rings on his rainbow stacker, do his simple geometric shapes puzzle, or do his beginner pattern blocks.  It isn't something we do every single day, but it is something entertaining for him.

Colors
He has had some exposure to colors through LR.  I made big 11x11 flashcards of the colors that I have been showing him three times a day.  Additionally, I wrote the colors onto corresponding sheets of foam, both in capital and lower case letters.  I show him these and he likes to look at them, grab them, and of course, chew on them.

Music
We haven't started doing that much with music yet.  I do try to have Pandora going often.  I play a wide variety of music for him, so he hears everything from Beethoven to Barney.  He adores music (and dancing).  I sing to him all the time (although any adult would probably cringe at my singing voice).  He also has a mini tambourine, bells, maracas, and a mini rain stick, most of which were found cleaning out my mom's basement closet.  Once we move, I hope to have the piano in a more convenient location so that we can play on that too (it is currently in the storage room in the basement).


Wow, when it is all written out like that, it looks like a lot.  It doesn't seem like it, because most of the "lessons" take less than a minute.  Also, I look at it as a way of entertaining him.  That kid doesn't know what overstimulation is.  He wants to be looking at something or doing something constantly!  I'm sure we could do more each day and he would love it.  I'm the one who can't keep up with him.

4 Months!

Today we had our 4 month checkup.  My tiny baby that was originally in about the 5th percentile, has now made his way to the 50th!  He is 14.6 lbs and 24 inches.  The doctor said he seemed to be doing really well.

Part of the 4 month milestone was getting to eat solid foods!  We started with whole wheat cereal.  I was supposed to start with only a tsp or so the first time to get him used to it.  I think he ended up with almost a tablespoon.  He loved it (have you seen his cheeks?  or maybe his lack of a neck?  The kid likes to eat!).

Afterwards I put some paint into a plastic bag and taped the end.  He liked squishing it, holding it, and, of course, trying to eat it.  Tonight he sat and played with it for at least half an hour while I washed dishes and talked to him.  I think it is an activity we will do often, with various colors.  I might also try giving him a baggie of water to squish around and experiment with.

Still Growing

Xander just keeps getting bigger every day.  After only one (big) box of size two diapers, we've moved on to size three.  With the diaper change we also had to switch to 6-9 month onsies.  He is mostly in 3-6 month clothing now, although just a few 0-3 month outfits still fit.

He still doesn't like tummy time.  The other day he turned himself 90 degrees while on his tummy though.  I'm sure he'll like it much more once he figures out he can move.  He is sleeping in his crib every night, but will nurse himself to sleep if I let him (which I frequently do, just by accident).  Xander coos and squeals often.  I call him my baby raptor, because when he's happy he makes this loud, high pitched squawk.  I've been trying to get it on video, but no luck yet.

I've mentioned that he loves tv.  Well a couple of nights ago he was sitting on the couch at my parents' house while I ate a quick dinner (my meals end up super low on the list of priorities).  Anyway, the television was on.  My aunt Katia came by to see him and sat in front of him talking and playing with him.  He screamed the whole time.  I told her he was just mad that she was blocking the tv, so she moved.  As soon as he could see it again, he was silent.  I am definitely going to have to invest in some infant development DVDs!  I almost bought him March of the Penguins at GoodWill the other day, maybe I should have.

Giggles!

Last night Xander giggled!  Granted, only twice, and for a very very short period of time, but still!  I can't wait to hear him giggling and laughing all the time!

Speaking of happy babies, this morning I got out the YBCR flashcards to go through just for fun.  Xander thought it was a great game!  He squealed and smiled and was very excited.  He particularly likes the words "arms up," probably because sometimes when we're snuggling and playing I put his arms up saying "arms up," put his arms down saying "arms down," put his arms out saying"arms out," and cross his arms and saying "arms crossed."  Since he thinks that game is such fun, I wonder if he made the connection and that's why he likes reading those words.