Toddlers’ language – as logical as it can be

Maria 1y.6m.

Children are our great teachers! Probably one of the most important things to learn from them is to be happy with every little thing (which we usually take as it is): when sun shines, when one plays balloon or feeds ducks, etc. We really lack positive emotions in our routine lives and can learn to do so when looking at our child. What we can also learn is to be logical when speaking.

Toddlers have already extensive passive vocabulary, understanding everything what is told them. They also start to try speaking themselves: imitate animal sounds, shorten the words, mix sounds in the words. The process of language development is outstandingly interesting. I’m also astonished how logical is everything what they say. Sometimes there is just one-two words enough to understand what Mary wants to tell (while for adults it can take at least a sentence of several words) – she finds exactly the words, which convey the bulk of information. Another thing is negative question, which is sometimes puzzling for an adult: Don’t you want to go to sleep? Children perfectly know what to answer: Yes! - if they don’t want and No! – if they want.
And this is probably just the beginning…

Water Week

Maria 1y.5m.

We never know the worth of water till the well is dry. ~Thomas Fuller, Gnomologia, 1732

As most of the children Mary loves to take a bath, sometimes it is really hard to get her out of it. So, when I had a week off I decided to tell her more about the water – unique resource of our Planet, which is so vital for every living creature. I was telling her about the water and its place in the nature, about the ponds, seas, rivers and lakes. Of course, it was done with the help of presentations for children (e.g. http://900igr.net/kartinki/priroda/Voda-i-vodojomy.files/Vodoemy.html), books and showing it in real nature.

1. First, I told her about the water cycle showing it in the book: Water evaporates and forms clouds – the clouds provide rain and snow – which is collected in rivers, lakes, underground reservoirs, and oceans – that are the source for further evaporation. Mary enjoyed it a lot as she liked that the book was interactive: one had to match figures (e.g. sun, clouds) in the right place.

2. We conducted an experiment to observe water in its different aggregative states: we boiled the water and put a glass with a bit of water in the freezer.

3. We made an aquarium out of bottle (sorry, didn’t manage to take a photo). We cut PET bottle into two parts, put clay in one of the part and dented there my former beads =) and small stones. We used green cotton, which became weeds, and poured water inside. Aquarium became a centre of attention for the whole week – it was definitely a new experience for the small one!

4. Water games!
• The game Mary liked the most is also the simple one: to catch “fish” with the help of glass from the bowl and put it in another bowl. She played it for approx. 1 hour, what is veeery long for this age group.

• Pour water in a bowl and with the help of sponge put it in another bowl – interesting game, probably, for older children;
• Before Mary took the bath I worked a bit with two bottles. I made some hole in one bottle and int hte cap of another bottle. When Maria was taking a bath, I showed her new toys :) - I filled in the first bottle with the water and we together observed how water was running out through the multiple holes. Then, we filled in the second bottle with the water: it was much fun for both of us, we could sprinkle each other!
• We didn’t try it ourselves yet, but it should be interesting to have several bottles/containers with water, which are coloured in different colours. This is also good material to continue studying the colours.
• Another thing is to make an experiment to find what stays afloat and what drowns when one throws them in the bowl/bath etc.

5. Of course, we could not live without creative part. As Maria still likes a lot to work with cereals I suggested her that we make a fish out of it. Then, she also made an aquarium with green weeds (studied green colour), where glued several fish. On the bottom of the aquarium she put some clay where we dented beans and pasta, which depict pebble and shells.

Farewell to Autumn

Maria 1y.5m.

Bittersweet October. The mellow, messy, leaf-kicking, perfect pause between the opposing miseries of summer and winter. ~Carol Bishop Hipps

I love autumn… It is so beautiful and quiet… It is such a peaceful time for mind and soul, indeed as a pause between heat and cold. It encourages to think a lot, it encourages to take care of everyone and everything, to start smth new… It is definitely a lovely time to be either outside or at home..

We are often walking with Maria outside, observing how the nature prepares for the hard winter: birds are flying away, leaves are changing colour and falling down, people around putting on warmer clothes. She seems to be interested in the whole process but possibly not as much as I am. She loves much more to touch things, so we gather acorns and chestnuts; we make bouquets of colourful leaves (pity, that they shrivel so fast); we run in the puddles and walk when it is raining…

At home we try to catch the breath of autumn on the paper, too. I drew the tree and Mary glued the leaves to show the shedding of leaves. Here, she drew the rowan with her fingerprints.

We also made men of acorns: I was doing the first, Maria repeated what I did; I just helped her in the end with mouth and an eye. Then, she had a task to insert matches into piece of clay to make a hedgehog. She loved it so much that I made a fir-tree, where Maria also inserted matches. On the hedgehog’s needles we put some apples (violet, though =)) prepared by Mary.

Socialization Era

Maria – 1y. 4m.

Definitely human is a social being and communication with others provides us with lots of valuable aspects: sharing experience, sharing emotions, learning, caring… (the list seems to be endless). Once there emerges the moment of acute communication hunger in everyone’s life.

I see now how Maria becomes more attentive towards others, how sincerely she is interested in other people's life, how closely she watches the faces of people passing by. When she sees kids, she goes straight forward to them to gain some socialization experience. Of course, there is a long way of learning communication science but some success we already have. Before borrowing the toy, which does not belong to her, she asks whether she can take it. She says also “Thanks!”. She can share her toys, but not always willingly does it =).

But there is still a way to go. Often, when Mary sees than someone is there, where she wants to be (e.g. swing is busy), she can burst in tears. So, I’m teaching her now that one should stand in a queue and wait until the thing she wants is free. With a help of toys and roleplays we started a full-fledged learning of how to communicate with kids and adults. I really hope, it will help obtain socialization experience in efficient way.

Local Animal Planet

Maria – 1y.4m.

As far as I know babies are very keen on studying animals: the first words they start to pronounce are often sounds of various fauna representatives (Moo! Oink! Baa! Mew! Coo!), they love to play with animal toys, they like to recognize familiar animals and study new ones in the books. The culmination most probably is Zoo visit, where they can see all animals in their “close to natural habitat” doing their own business: eating, sleeping, walking etc.

So, in September we decided to have an animal week. Throughout the whole week together with Maria we have been studying as many animals as we could, recalled their sounds, read books about them.

To ease and to make our "studies" more interesting I prepared home zoo. In every window somebody lives: tiger, zebra, owl… I also wrote the names of each one. Of course, Mary cannot read yet, but this was done with the perspective and with the intention that she gets used to the letters. At first it was interesting for her just to open windows, then I asked her to find this or that animal and later she tried to name every animal.

We added a bit of creative work to make our learning even more interesting and efficient. We made a giraffe out of various kinds of cereal, which in an easy and efficient manner develops fingers. Maria evidently enjoyed this so much that she played with the cereal for quite a while after we finished our “masterpiece”.

Our animal week was marked by the discovering the world of Real animals in local zoo! It was a fountain of emotions! Our baby girl was really astonished to see all animals in real!

Games When Mum is Cooking

Cooking for six people every day is like having a cafe. =)
Linda McCartney

Maria -1y. 3m.

I try to spend almost all my time with our lovely baby. I don’t think it is an exaggeration as I work almost full time but she is little yet and demands lots of attention. So, basically we do all homework together: clean bath, remove dust, wash floors, iron shirts (seems very similar to Montessori development method ;)). Maria enjoys it very much and is very helpful. I’m sure, she would be very keen on cooking too, but as she is not tall yet and cannot see what is happening on the cooking table - she cannot perform cooking tasks yet. Besides, it can be quite dangerous due to the heat and sharp knives. So, one has to be creative to suggest such an activity to the baby that he does not disturb mum, when she cooks.

So, here are mine solutions:
1. Colourful Clay is good one. Mary tears a piece of clay and presses it over the paper. She also works out her fingers and studies colours simultaneously, which is very good for development.

2. Bag with Secrets. I give Maria my old bag with different kinds of small items like Kinder Surprise toys, small balls, musical box etc. Maria takes it all out, carefully studies, plays with the bag’s fasteners and puts all things back. Then, mum has to hide bag again so these things would appear as new next time.
3. Cereal drawing, which reminds me of beautiful sand imagination videos.

So, I put cereal on the tray and let Maria act. After her active drawing there is a good argument to wash the floor =)

4. Family Album is also one of the most preferable things to look through when her mum is busy. She loves to find herself on the pictures, recognizes other members of the family. When doing this, she speaks a lot and I try to support our dialogue. So, it is fun for both!

With these exercises, we achieve several goals: mum has cooked the dinner and the small one has spent time in exciting and efficient manner!

Methods to Develop Early - Glenn Doman

Method of Glen Doman was the first for me to discover. Mr.Doman is the founder of the Institutes for Achievement of Human Potential in US, works a lot with children, which have brain problems. He suggests that when stimulating one part of brains, we can achieve higher activity of the whole brain system. So, every child, according to his theory, can become a genius.

Here are my reflections on his method for developing kid:

1. It is well-known that the brains develop fast when we are small yet and, thus, one has to provide higher intellectual load when the baby is small. For better intellectual development, children also have to move more. Doman proposes to stimulate children crawling on his first days of life. -> Agree on the encouraging moving activity of the baby, but not when he is so small. I think baby’s organism needs to adapt to a new world. But pushing him to crawl so early can become an unnecessary stress.

2. Doman suggests that we should start teaching children as early as possible, right after the birth. Flashcards with the words printed in red colour, and dots for numbers to teach Math should be shown to the baby at least 6 times a day. -> I made flashcards for Maria when she was 5 m.o. and started showing them to her. Frankly, I could not guess what she is thinking about the whole process – there wasn’t too much emotions on her face. I have been doing it for several weeks but then I stopped mainly for time constraints (you need to be with a child for the whole day together).

And also it seemed to be that the aim to start reading early was not paying-off. To my mind, at that period of Maria’s age it was better instead to go outside, to study surrounding world with real things (I was showing her nature, different kitchen appliances, books, toys), to read poems, to make gymnastics, etc., which is not encouraged by Glenn Doman as these types of activities are considred to be a waste of time. Besides, in the education process the child becomes a passive learner, not an active thinker.

Definitely the experience with Doman method was valuable for me. I was again assured that the potential of children is endless (much depends on mum’s inputted effort), that moving activity is crucial for health and for intellectual development and that with repeating method you can basically teach child whatever you want. I agree with him that the lessons should be somehow organized, put on a systematic basis. But I would better do it on my own way, which seems to me more interesting not just studying boring flashcards several times EVERY day! Other good thing from Doman method trying - flashcards. We tend to look at them, to speak about things drawn there. I have cut some into pieces and now we are making puzzles out of them.

Football To Continue!

Vuvuzelas are silent and doors to stadiums, where Football World Cup happened, are closed, but we have just opened for us a wonderful toy – a BALL! Maria is fan of it, all the time she brings a ball for me to throw it high in the sky or in her hands. We are also improvising football play by trying to push ball forward shouting GOAL!!!

Studying Colours

Uffff, that’s quite uneasy task…We started studying colors about 1.5 month ago but the results are seen just now and not always 100% correct. I recently found out the reason: children start to see clear differences between colours when they are older than 1.5 years. Maria is just 1y.2m.o. I guess, we will postpone a bit our colourful life.

But I will shortly tell you how we proceeded with colours.

1. We had two triangles: yellow and green. I explained that one is yellow, other is green and asked to give me yellow, then green. When this task was done moreless successfully, we increased number of colours to 4 basic ones: blue, yellow, green and red.

2. The game was as follows: one needed to find in our flat as many blue-coloured things as possible. Of course, we did it together, but Mary liked the game.

3. On the piece of cloth (to save space compared to paper) circles were drawn and coloured in 4 basic colours. So, I asked Mary to step in yellow, blue… etc., first doing it together. Then, we went through our toys and sorted them by colours, putting them on the according circle.

4. When being outside, I pointed out the things, which were of the colours she knows: Look! Here is a RED car coming!... Though, this is rather passive learning, anyway it should develop Maria’s understanding of the colours.

Second Language

I, myself, am fond of languages and love to study them. And I would be really happy if Maria would also have a wish to study languages. Besides, we live in bilingual country so knowing at least two (I would even say three!) languages is a must for us. So, gradually I begin to introduce Maria to her second language.

It is well-known theory that for children it is much easier to learn smth new (e.g. to speak foreign languages, to ski, to swim) compared to an adult. Knowing this advantage we started quite early (1 y. 1 m. o.) to learn second language. In the beginning I was worrying that Maria will get a mixture of native and foreign language in her head. These worries were reinforced by the fact that at the moment she just starts speaking her native language, although she understands everything what one says. So, I surfed the Internet to find the experience of parents, whose children grew in bilingual families, read articles of teachers, scientists, psychologists. The results of my findings pointed to the main principle of a successful language studying, which is a clear border between two languages: a) mum speaks one/dad speaks another; b) at home one language is spoken/in the countryside another is spoken; c) foreign language can be spoken at a particular part of the day or day of week.

We chose the time before going to bed (~15 min), when we communicate in foreign language. During this time I read poems and speak in a different language. In the beginning, Maria looked really puzzled, and thought maybe her Mum is crazy =). But now I see she starts to understand separate words and is quite interested in the process.

We will see how it goes further. Anyway, I believe, these efforts will not be in vain and everything what we do now will help Maria to develop in her future life.

Self-made Toys

Actually, pictures seem to be self-explanatory but nevertheless I will provide some comments on each.
1. For developing hands and fingers of babies. We take a piece of cloth and make a small bag (alternative: we can take a sock without a pair =)), fill it with different substances: pasta, beans, buckwheat etc. We started to workout fingers when Maria was just 7 m.o. She liked it in the beginning but now, when she is already 1.1 she feels a bit bored with this toy.

2. I found some spare covers in my kitchen and made a logics game for Maria by cutting a hole in a piece of carton for each cover. She likes this game very much and is very happy when all covers fit in the right place.

3. These beads were made by my grandmother, for which I’m very grateful to her. We noticed that Maria as all women loves to make herself beautiful and loves to be in front of the mirror =)))). She became crazy when she saw I was putting my beads on. Soon she got her own beads made out of buttons of different size. They made her really happy!!! She played with her beads (which is also very good for finger workout) already when she was 9 m.o. but they still remain her favourite toy.

4. This toy I made relatively after I spotted intention of our baby to put things in holes, to put covers on top of the bottles, jars. It was exactly what she needed at that moment. Now, I think, this game should become a bit complicated: instead of big rings, buttons will be used and the hole will be much smaller, of course.

5. Absolutely top hit!!! is a house made by Maria’s father from the pasteboard. The house was papered for it to look happier =), but one can draw smth on it, write smth etc. As children psychologists say the house is needed for child’s internal development as it helps child to become more attentive. It also provides additional feeling of safety and soul comfort as the child understands it has its own place, where no adult is allowed. Another advantage of this toy – it will be suitable for many years on.

Methods to Develop Early

Basically all authors of methods for developing children physical and intellectual potential agree that the most productive time for developing child is till he gets 3 y.o. as this is the time when brains are in their fastest growing stage. Of course that doesn’t mean that one should stop educating kid when he gets older, but the early stage is crucial for further development.

In my blog I will try to cover all most popular methods for developing a child, posting my opinion on each. Together with Maria we probably would try to implement some elements into practice and later share our experience with you.

However, I’m very cautious with all these development techniques for some reasons. First, they all have been created relatively recently and, therefore, haven’t been tested properly yet, the lifelong influence on the child seems to be not well researched yet. Second, some of these methods make child think in categories (letters, words, figures etc.) not images. Imaginative thinking is crucial for the child till he is at least 6-7 y.o. Besides, my personal belief is that, in future, economics would need people with creative thinking (advertising industry, design, web programming, entertainment etc.). Third, the ultimate goal of each parent is to make his baby happy. I really doubt that these techniques are able to make a person happy. Simple example: a really developed child goes to school – he is too clever for the current program, becomes bored and gets lazy in the end, having no any wish to study further or he becomes an outcast and cannot properly communicate with his mates.

I believe that the best way to proceed is to adopt some development techniques, and to go our own way: e.g.reading fairy tales and poems, playing together, studying the surrounding world when being ocutside, and doing other fun things for development. What is more, it is commonly believed and I fully support opinion that the best teacher is Mum, who absolutely feels the needs of her child for development.

Dance Dance Revolution

It's been a while since my last post... Sorry guys... was hardly preparing for my exam. Till results announcement it is still some time to go, so I will try to successfully combine blogging, having rest with the little one and my job. To warm up a bit I will start with the post dedicated to music.

Children are very sensitive to the surrounding environment; particularly they are sensitive to the music. The majority at the age close to 1 Y wants to move when hears the rhythmic music.

I am fond of various kinds of music: starting with world classics and finishing with modern rock and pop. When I was pregnant I used to play piano so that the baby would listen to the beautiful music. Maria did listen and later remembered the music I played to her. Now she is big fan of music and also loves to dance. We dance together crazily when listen to the energizing music. I hold Maria’s hands and she moves: bends knees, moves her head and laughs…

When I feel we are a bit bored, I turn on the music (each time different (including also old classics such as Abba and Beatles as well as music for children) so that she also gets familiar with various styles and develops her taste of music) and we DANCE,DANCE, DANCE!!!

Rainy Shower

Bathroom is Maria’s favourite room in the house. She cannot wait until evening when she has regular bathtime. It is time when she usually gets a portion of positive emotions – so much she adores being in the bath (I guess, as many children at her age (9-10 months)).

She has many bath toys: ducks, ships, fish, - but they all just 5 min to play with. The most interesting toy is shower, which I introduced to her very recently. At first, she was a bit frightened but evidently fascinated by the shower. We have even a code name for it: RAIN! =))))

• We hide shower under water,
• Sink Maria’s ships,
• Water walls and all around including mum.
• Maria is fan of catching the stream,
• She also loves to fill with water cans, plastic glasses and other emkosti.
• What is more, shower helps me to teach Maria parts of the body: “Now we will water hand…. another hand… back… belly…”. Maria knows already what I am going to do and puts her legs or hands under the rainy shower.

It really helps as the studying is in form of the game and is associated with positive emotions, which encourage instant memorizing.

Hot & Cold

Look, what a Snowman we’ve built together this weekend! Maria had the role of the main observer/supervisor, taster and destroyer!

This year winter is indeed brilliant! Despite it is March, we have a wonderful snowy winter outside. So, I decided to seize the opportunity to introduce notions of Hot and Cold to our baby. We went outside for a while to watch the snow and feel how cold it is; took some along and later built a snowman out of it. It was a good opportunity for the small one to touch it as her movements were not restricted by the large warm overalls. We continued the COLD topic with the opening deep-freezer and touching the ice there.

Hot notion was taught with the help of radiator. The learning was very fast as the radiator was hot, indeed. Hot is also the air near the oven, when mum is cooking actively. This was definitely useful experience for Maria – she understands both of these notions very well, and won’t touch the thing if mum says it is Hot.

Touch-me-not

I have combined in one post three ways of spending time togetherr as they are very similar: it is mainly for observation (one cannot touch, feel it etc.), i.e. for attention training but also for fun as it does not require any great effort.

1) Bubbles, bubbles, bubbles…
This one is the most exciting and it is equally interesting for child as well as for an adult. Soap bubbles is our favourite time spending when we are in the bathroom: it is thrilling to observe colourful and multiple bubbles flying around =)). When Maria saw it for the first time, she was astonished. Now she tries to catch them but, to her disappointment, unsuccessfully.

2) Torch
This is realizable only in the dark time, which is good to do in winter period when the day time is short. We turn off the light and lie down on the sofa. I turn on a small torch and start to play with it.

Frankly, I hoped Maria would follow the light. He-he! Nothing like that… =) She needs a torch, she does everything to get it in her hands and mouth. We tried to play with it several times, but in the end seized doing that. However, maybe for some children it can become another entertainment just for a change.

3) Sun
Pity, we did not try it, as we do not get a lot of Sun in our place. The logics here is the same as with the torch: playing with the light with the help of watches or mirror. It should be interesting for small curious babies! =)

Falling Down

There is a period in almost every baby’s life, when it gets interesting for them to throw all the things down again and again until their mommies are fed up with taking things up.

Maria started to do it, too. Oooops… Of course, it is not fun for me to give toys again to Maria, but when I see how curious she is and how much she likes it, it becomes fun for me, too. =)


Perhaps, one would think that I'm spoiling the child. Intuitively I believe, it is not like that. At this age the child is actively exploring the world and throwing away various things, which are falling down with different sounds, -it is part of this unavoidable process, it is crucial for personality development.

Another similar game (which is not that tiring, by the way) was shown to me by Maria recently. I’ve noticed she is very fond of throwing down every piece of cloths she sees. Now we spend much more time in the bathroom: I’m catching the towel thrown down by Maria, when she is sitting on my hands.

Probably, it is not a win-win situation for parent and a child, but it is definitely necessary for child’s development.

Hide-and-Seek 2

The first one (Hide-and-Seek) was described in my post titled “Cuckoo”. As it was stated earlier this game develops attention of the child; teaches him/her to concentrate. The condition necessary for playing it is child’s ability to move (creep, crawl, walk) freely.

We started playing it, probably, a bit too early, when Maria was 6 months old. Now after some training, of course, she became a professional, but in the beginning she was not very much interested in the process.

After installing some new items (soap plate holder, tissue holder, towel ring etc.) in our bathroom, we’ve got some spare boxes, which I decided to use in our games with Maria. I also took her favourite toy Minnie to encourage her to participate actively in the process. I hided Minnie in one of the boxes in front of her eyes and asked her to find it. Upon successful task fulfilment, I changed the places of boxes (again in front of her eyes). As she did well, I was gradually increasing the number of boxes. The successful result of searching Minnie is always praised by me and I can notice that Maria is also enjoying her success!

I'm sure there are many ways how to play this game. One just needs to be creative!

CatchaAAA!!!!

This is a fun game for everyone. Usually there are two parties involved: Maria and smb else but most often this is me. It is a great stimulation for movement and action which is crucial in any age. So, we proceed in the following way: Maria is lazily creeping on the floor… I appear behind her and loudly go to the floor with all four telling: I will catch you now! Catchaa! Catcha! Will Catch you in a second!..

I start to approach her loudly continuing to encourage her to run away from me. She somehow understands it (maybe it is an instinct) and moves away as fast as she can. We both laugh crazily and both move – it is enjoyable!

Of course, soon I reach her but I allow some time for her to move forward. When I catch her I hug and kiss her! Then we change our roles and she tries to catch me. I am not creeping very fast to allow her to catch me to, so she can feel proud of herself!

Age of Learning

7-8-9 months is a wonderful time for studying. At this age children start to consciously respond to the requests and remarks of the adults. It is a great time for exploring the world and developing the skill to study, which, I am sure, will definitely benefit the child in adult life.

I’ve noticed Maria is able to memorize lots and lots of information every day. We are looking through the book and I show her various animals, Sun, a boy, a girl, a house etc. painted in the book. Later I ask: “Sun.. Where is the Sun? ” and she shows it to me with her little fingers. Of course, if she is right I always praise her. If she is not, I show the thing myself. She seems to be fond of demonstrating her knowledge. I know, Glenn Doman does not approve testing of the child, but I see she likes it and I know that my efforts are not in vain.

We started with just 2 things on one page: a lion and a turtle. Now she can show me almost all things painted in the book. The “lesson” (if I may say so) is relatively short, we stop studying when she is still not tired.

Our studies are not limited by the book, we study the things surrounding us. Frankly, this learning was started by my parents who patiently were showing the things around and explaining their qualities. Now Maria has fun when studying all around.

Second Wave

Hmm… Maria seems to be growing up fast and to demonstrate her character, her likes and dislikes. First, we seized to read books every day, which became impossible as Maria did not want to lie down, she wanted to move around. Second, we stopped to dive in the pool, which was most probably because of fear. Third, which was quite a recent behaviour demonstration, we stopped doing gymnastics – a great dislike when somebody tried to do smth (to bent knees or to raise hands) with Maria.

First and second issues lasted for 1.5 -2 months (third is still in process). And finally… we started to read books and dive again, but these things are done now with putting in much more sense, thought and emotions that it was before. Now Maria likes to turn over the pages herself, to look through the pictures, to listen to the poems (hope, soon she would be glad to listen to some fairy tales, too). She does not mind diving in the pool, she even seem to feel proud of herself after she dives out.

Watching this behaviour, I can conclude that one definitely needs a pause in doing smth. Afterwards, we can hope that baby will continue doing it, even with much greater wish and power.

Airplane

Definitely children need to feel their closest people; they need to touch their mums and dads. They love also tactile games.

We play a very short but efficient game (I always manage to lift Maria’s mood with this game) calling it “Airplane”. The game is as follows: we imagine that my hand is an airplane, which slowly approaches Maria with the appropriate sound, crashes into her and starts to tickle her. LOL both of us! And then start it once again while we are not bored with it =D!

Saving on Toys

I believe, almost every child has piles of toys. So does Maria. And I guess, in most cases they are all over the nursery or accurately in the box put there by caring hands of mum. Same case with Maria. She receives a new toy, plays with it max 5 min and that’s it. In the next days, she can play with it but it would be only for a very short time.

I understand it: child is a very fast learner and needs much more information than we supply him/her in the form of toys. So, I decided to help Maria continue explore the world and offer her toys which I usually play with in the kitchen (I have also rated these things according to the Maria's preference and duration of playing with the thing, 5-best, 1-worst):

1. colander – 4, interesting but not very long to play with;
2. wooden spoon – 3, keeps attention for short time period, too simple;
3. plastic bottle – 2, not very comfortable to hold;
4. jar top – 5, very good toy, easy to hold, makes sound if to knock with it;
5. sponge – 2, nice thing to take into the mouth, too short in keeping attention;
6. rubber gloves – 4, smooth surface, interesting texture;
7. washing machine – 5, very good at keeping attention, always some action and sound;
8. comb – 5, super-toy!


Actually, these are just some examples, but they are a lot of fun for Maria when I cook. One can think of many other adult toys that would suit for a child to play with (they need to be SAFE!!!). Nowadays many babies (future generation =)) are crazy about pults, mobiles, keyboard, mouse. Maria is not an exclusion that is why she is having her own PC mouse, which is out-of-order now and which I would give a 5!!! rating.

How to Start Creeping?

I was longing for the moment Maria will begin creeping on her all four (before she was pretty fast in crawling) as it trains well the muscles of all body, improves coordination and symmetrically develops the body. This day has finally come and now she can slowly creep, gaining speed with every day!

Definitely Bobath gymnastics helped... Also at home we’ve tried to do some training: e.g. we held Maria’s legs, while she was leaning on her hands, holding the weight of her body. However, I believe the biggest contribution to the ability to creep was provided by the barriers we put on her way when she was trying to reach the desired thing. The barriers were created by the parents, by their bodies and legs =). Also she went over the blankets and pillows. Barriers were everywhere.

Of course, in the beginning it was quite hard, but she improved as days passed. She had a very good motivation in the form of dad’s mobile =). Afterwards, it was easy for her to put straight arms on a shelf (on the surface above the floor). Gradually, she moved to the horizontal surface, to the floor, and could easily stand on all four. Creeping came almost immediately afterwards!

Results of Gymnastics

So, series of our Bobath trainings have finished. I would not say that it significantly improved skills of Maria. She cannot creep yet, but it is good that she tries to. It turned out also that there is a slight muscle tonus in her arms, which we try to eliminate by doing massage.

Physiotherapist said that overall development of Maria is pretty good, but it is good to work out her arms, hands, fingers. When answering my question on what is Bobath gymnastics, she said that it is all joints work out. Its difference from usual gymnastics is that it is made not by the person itself, but by someone else.

I’m very glad that we did this course of trainings. Maria has certainly gained thanks to it: became stronger, obtained some more life experience and social skills. For me it was also good to see how professional works as now I can continue her job inhouse and we can do gymnastics together with Maria at home.

Singing for babies

“Life is one grand, sweet song, so start the music.”
- Ronald Reagan

Music is a magic! It can change the mood, it creates atmosphere of piece, chaos, harmony etc. (whatever one wishes). I have never met a person who does not like music. The same case is with children! They love music but more they love when their mums sing. According to my experience, singing songs is the most efficient way to calm baby down.

Singing was the only way to calm Maria down, when she had colics – I needed to sing something. Now she also adores listening to songs, having preferences for certain songs. For instance, one of her favourite songs is Once Upon a December from Anastasia movie. For her it is associated with certain ritual: I’m holding her tight and we are dancing and whirling… She starts to laugh, she becomes happy upon she hears first notes of this songs!

Cuckoo

Cuckoo or hide-and-seek is one of the games Maria loves the most at this age. Usually it is me who hides behind the fitball, door, blanket etc. After a while with a cry: “Cuckooooo!” I show up, but every time in different place of the thing I hide behind (sometimes, though, in the same place for the game to become more interesting). Maria is excited and laughs loudly when she guesses the exact place I peek out.

Another variant of this game, Maria also enjoys a lot, is that I cover her with a piece of cloth asking "Where is Maria?", and then remove it saying "Here is Maria". Sometimes Maria is faster than I and removes the cloth herself.

We play this game several times during the day but for a very short time. I would say that this game trains attention of the child. Moreover, I have noticed that her reaction got much better, she is faster in identifying what and where is going on.

Exploring the World

Maria is fond of studying not only herself. There is felt an irresistible need of exploring the surrounding world. When we are outside, I always try to show the beauty of the nature: I give her to touch and crumple the leaves, twigs, cones etc. She gets fantastically excited about it, obviously liking to study new stuff.

When we walk around and Maria does not want to sleep, I remove the hood of the pram so that she has a good observation angle. It gets truly interesting for her to observe trees when there is a wind which moves the twigs and leaves. Finally, the winter has started here, which gives the possibility to feel how cold snow is and to see how brilliantly white it is.

Maria also adores looking out of the window, from which a nice vista opens. Indeed, it is a good calming way when she becomes nervous. I tell her about passing cars, walking people, babies in prams with their moms, flying airplanes, light in the windows in the dark time. Standing by the window in the day and night and holding tightly the baby is a great feeling for both, I am sure!