Oh I do like to be beside the seaside

As David assumed he hadn't got the job he had an interview for last week (they told him they'd let him know on Monday but we heard nothing), and the weather's been so nice, we decided to have a day at the beach on Wednesday to get away from it all. I decided that Skegness was the easiest to drive to, so after a 2 1/2-hour drive we arrived. Iona was a bit grizzly by the end of the journey, wanting to go to a playground, and after so long sitting in one place she was not in the mood to sit still one moment longer, so we decided on fish and chips the best way - sat on the beach!

She managed to sit for a little food and drink, but decided that it would be best liberally doused with sand! Apart from a flying visit to the beach at Port Talbot last December it was her first visit to the seaside, and she loved the sand, particularly "swimming" in it.

After lunch I took Iona for a paddle. As when we went to Port Talbot she had no fear of the waves, loved splashing in them and was reluctant to leave.

On the way down to the sea I saw a real, wild starfish (unfortunately dead) for the first time, and showed it to Iona. She was quite interested, especially as we've seen them in books, and was happy to hold it.

After we'd finished paddling we returned to Daddy, who'd built a sandcastle and was starting on a moat.

Although she quickly knocked the castle down that was the extent of her destructiveness, and she spent some time exploring her ability to make handprints in the sand. She seemed to find it really fascinating. It's been something she's been doing at every opportunity since she did some painting last week and I tried to show her how to make fingerprints.

After a while she noticed a bigger girl making a castle nearby and went to have a look. I was wary that she'd damage it, and warned her to be careful, but although the girl said she could knock it down (I think she was just leaving) Iona was very good and just decorated it very carefully with shells and pebbles. That's a real step forward, as she's normally very destructive.

In the mid-afternoon we went for an ice-cream, which Iona also loved.

We then had to go, as we had a long drive ahead of us, although Iona was very upset and didn't want to go. However, overall she had a lovely day and I decided to begin a unit study with her on the seaside to capitalise on this. I've used the "Hello Ocean" lapbook as a basis for this:

http://www.homeschoolshare.com/hello_ocean_lapbook.php

Their tactile starfish was a particularly good idea, as it can act as a permanent reminder of the starfish we saw. Although we couldn't afford to buy "Hello Ocean" I decided to buy "What Lives in a Shell?" http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0064451240/ref=oss_product and am just waiting now to see what it's like when it arrives.

Continuous Present

Iona has suddenly got the hang of the present continuous tense. A couple of weeks ago she started saying "What are you doing today?" and answering herself with phrases such as "I am piano". I would correct her "Yes, you're playing the piano". Then, yesterday I think, she started saying, for her teddy, "I am cuddling Iona", and today she kept trying out the sentence with different verbs. She also tried different persons - at lunchtime she said "I am eating peas. We are eating peas." It was fascinating to see her figuring out how language works, and amazing, too, as she's still so young.

May update.

So much has changed since the last entry I wrote. Iona has now turned 2, and had a lovely day, with a cake and presents at Mummy and Daddy's, then more cake, more presents, and her slightly younger cousin at Grandma and Grandad's. We started to prepare her for her birthday about a week before it, and she was soon able to say that her birthday was "Saturday" and that she'd be "2". She'd been singing "Happy birthday" already for a couple of weeks, and even now she keeps singing it to herself, which is OK apart from when it was one of her friend's birthdays this week!

Anyway, I tried doing some more baking with Iona this morning. I haven't tried for a while, as she always gets upset when she can't eat it rather than stir it! Well, we watched "I Can Cook" this morning, where Katie made honey tea loaf, so I promised Iona she could help me make a banana cake if she wanted. She was quite happy with this, and seemed to be looking forward to it, but lo and behold, by the time I'd got things sorted out to do it she was bored with it! Still, I managed to get her to stir it once, and she was very happy with the result, calling it "honey tea loaf"!

After our abortive attempt at cooking I gave in to Iona's requests to go into the garden. Nowadays when I tell her she needs to put her shoes on before she goes in the garden she goes straight to where her shoes are kept, which was quite a shock the first time she did it. I still haven't really got over how much she understands now. We put our shoes on and went into the garden. While I tidied it up a bit she disappeared back into the house and shortly after reappeared with one of her paints and a receipt she'd found - she was trying to get together the things she needed to do painting! I grabbed a paintbrush and a newspaper (figuring a receipt was a bit small for a toddler's painting!) and took them to her, and we had a really fun session with Iona painting the newspaper (and herself, of course!). I even managed to persuade her back inside without too many complaints by telling her the cake would be nearly ready and she'd be able to eat it. All in all, a very productive morning.

A short history lesson

Today our Mums' Bible study met up in the town to choose our next study book. As we arrived a little early, Iona and I took our time walking up past the cathedral. On our way we passed the statue of Bonnie Prince Charlie on his horse, so I explained to Iona who he was, and that he wanted to make everyone Catholics. We then had a quick look inside the cathedral, where Iona had never been before, then went to meet the others at the bookshop. Much later, after we'd been home for a long time, I asked Iona who we'd seen a statue of, on his horse, behind the church. To my surprise, she replied "Charlie". I asked her what he wanted to make everyone, and she replied with a word very like "Catholic". I was amazed, as I'd never discussed this story with her before, but she'd obviously taken it in. She just absorbs words and facts at the moment!

Peepo!!!

Today was a day of firsts for Iona. First of all, we walked all the way to the Children's Centre and back, which was the first time she has done an entire walk on her own. Usually it takes me 10 minutes to walk, but this morning we got there in 20 minutes, while it took 40 to get home, mainly due to Iona wanting to pick up just about every pebble she saw and put them on people's walls! Amazingly, she spent most of the time in between walks running around at the Centre, and didn't even seem tired when we got home - it was me that was exhausted!

Today's session at the Children's Centre was Messy Play, but, as usual, Iona wasn't interested in the painting and other crafts indoors, preferring to run around outside. Towards the end of the session she was playing around by the plastic play house, when one of the other, slightly younger, children went inside. He looked out of the window, which had plastic shutters, and Iona closed them again. He reopened them and said "Peepo", so Iona replied by shutting them again, with a smile on her face. They carried on doing this for a while. It's the first time Iona has really played as an equal with another child, and was lovely to watch.

The "One" Show

For quite a few months now, Iona has been able to recognise supermarket names when she sees them, even in a different colour to their usual, e.g. "ASDA" in black on a yoghurt pot. However, this is always in its usual font, and within some sort of expected context, so I regard it more as logo recognition than actual reading. Tonight, though, she found a wildlife book on my shelf which said "do one thing". The font and design looked similar to that of the logo of "The One Show", but the context was completely different. However, she immediately said "one two" (what she calls "The One Show"), and when I asked her where she immediately pointed to the word "one"! To me, that is much closer to the skill of reading by the look-say approach, so I think I can finally say, with pride, that Iona has now read her first word!!!

Let it snow part 3

I think I've finally finished the snow unit with Iona, as the past 2 days' rain has washed the last snow away. On Thursday I made the most of it before the cold ended and the rain began, and took Iona out to play in the snow.

We went into the front garden first, where it was still pristine, and I showed her how when we walked in the snow it left footprints. I photographed mine, Daddy's and hers, and showed her a nice trail of cat footprints.

I also let Lori out into the garden and tried to photograph her prints but she ran around like a mad thing and so didn't leave any good enough ones! Unfortunately, Iona most wanted to go for a walk down the road, preferably in the middle of the road, and preferably on her own, so it all ended it tears when this wasn't allowed!

Next I took her into the back garden (from where she wouldn't be tempted to escape!), so she could play a bit more. Once she'd got hold of Lori's frameball she was happy to run around there, chasing after Lori, but she didn't seem very interested in my attempts to make a snowman. I showed her how to make a snowball, though. After we'd done playing outside we went back in, where Iona found that there was still a piece of snow stuck to her mitten. I rescued it from her and kept showing it to her as it got smaller, explaining that the snow was melting and turning back to water.

I explained more to Iona about snow melting yesterday, when we walked to the car to go to the Children's Centre. It was fairly slushy by then, and she very much enjoyed splashing in the resulting puddles.

Then, today, as I said, I finished making Iona's lapbook on snow. I printed out the photos of the footprints, and made a flip book of them. In addition, I found a website from which I could print out a world map (http://www.mapsofworld.com/) and printed out an outline map of the world. I coloured in blue (and Iona helped) the "areas where there is a lot of snow", and marked on it the names of the people who lived in the American and European Arctics (I had read to Iona during the week from a book about Arctic peoples), as well as a pointer showing where we lived. During the evenings this week I have also read "The Snow Queen" to her.

Overall, this has been my most successful unit study, possibly because I had a deadline of trying to get it finished before the snow went. I've tried to do a bit of work on it every day with her, and feel that it's really focussed my mind and given me ideas to cover things (such as forgiveness) that I probably wouldn't have tried yet. It's also the first lapbook that I've finished making.

Let it snow some more.

Iona and I have been continuing our unit study on snow. I found some resources on the net yesterday, such as video of polar bears and photos of arctic animals. Some very helpful sites were: http://webtech.kennesaw.edu/jcheek3/snow.htm and http://123child.com/UBB/showthread.php?t=3092. The second of these reminded me of a technique I learned at Sunshine Club last year - mixing shaving foam and PVA glue (with paint, too, if wished) produces home-made puffy paint. I printed a photo of Daddy outside our house, then helped Iona paint on the white puffy paint to make a snowscene. To be honest, it didn't much resemble a snowscene when she'd finished with it, as she preferred rubbing the paint off the picture and around her hands, but she enjoyed it!

Next, I decided to do some combined craft and numeracy work. I gave Iona a roll of cotton wool, and put glue in 1-5 snowman shapes on 5 sheets of paper. I then encouraged her to stick bits of cotton wool on them, all the while reinforcing the words "snowman" and "1" to "5". I drew faces on all of them and labelled them, then at bedtime stuck them up on her wall. Later, this afternoon, we went to story time at the library. In the children's area the wall is painted with a mural of a snowscene with a snowman, and during the session Iona suddenly pointed at it and said "snowman"!

While Iona was asleep this afternoon I made a flip book on "Animals that live in the snow", with photos from the computer and names written by me, which I showed her when she woke up. I also gave her a printed snowflake with the words "If we say "I'm sorry" to God he will make us as clean as snow", for her to colour. Finally, I printed out a photo of a 4-inch snowflake and wrote on it "A snowflake has 6 points". I labelled the points 1-6, reading the numbers out loud as I did so. Iona stunned me by saying each number, right up to 6 before I did each time, proving that she now knows the order of numbers 1-6!

Talking of dogs

I think Iona has finally started stringing words together, albeit with pauses between them for Mummy to acknowledge each. Yesterday, she said "Lori" (our dog's name), then, after a pause, "gone", then, after another pause "kitchen". Another milestone passed!

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

The snow this year has been as thick as I've ever known it (I think it was this deep down south in '81). Consequently, I decided to concentrate less for the moment on the "Where do I live?" unit and improvise one on "Snow" (although I've not really planned it).

To begin with, I helped Iona make snowflakes out of pipe cleaners and wool, as we did last year at Sunshine Club. I twisted 3 pipe cleaners into a 6-pointed star, tied some white wool at the centre, then got Iona to help me wind it round and round them, tying it off at the top. After that, I squeezed PVA glue over it, and Iona shook blue glitter over it (while it was inside a box to reduce mess). She loved the shaking, and got upset when it was time to stop! The end result now hangs up in her bedroom, helping to make up for having to take the Christmas decorations down.

We have walked in the snow, with me explaining how the snow sounds and feels crunchy, and Iona has played a little in it, although at its thickest she didn't like falling on her hands and knees in the cold!

One of our most successful activities was making meringue snowflakes. I got the idea from the Disney FamilyFun website (http://familyfun.go.com/recipes/meringue-snowflakes-684262/), and while the mix was a bit too liquid to do more than simple 6-pointed star shapes, they were fairly easy to make, and very nice for us all to eat. Iona helped me to beat the egg whites (we don't possess a mixer, so it all had to be done by hand), and loved saying she was "mix"ing and also learning the word "whisk".

While doing this unit, I've taken the opportunity to expand Iona's counting from "one, two" to up to 6. She can't go beyond 3 yet, but it's been a good numeracy opportunity.

The unit has also gone well with the book I've started reading Iona at bedtime, which is a much simplified version of one of my all-time favourite books: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. The start of it features a lot of snow, so I'm able to refer her back to what we've seen and played in during the day.