Bajs .. Ish .. Water and words

We've had a hot few days , so have been to the seaside and the local lake a few times.  Winston loves going in the water, he laughs when he goes in cold water on the parts that we hate the water to reach!

He has become very reliable at shouting out BAJS! when he has a poo coming.  Sometimes he is saying it for about 20 minutes before he is truly ready to go .. and in that time , we might put him on his potty / toilet  quite a few times.. but eventually he will go.

I've been reading our home mad books to Winston more and more.. and using the flash words less.  Our kitchen is getting full of words  now .. as whenever something comes up, I write it an bluetack it.

I think he has forgotten the word BUS, but has got more comfortable with others. Here's a film. He said TREE for the first time, quite nicely.

Also, I have been starting to teach him about 16 action words.  When you leave a room and say bye to someone, Winston will often wave about 5 seconds later.  It is good to bear this in mind when teaching him new stuff ... he has to have time to work it out.  Here's a film of Winston learning some action words with his mental dad.

Bajs! Tiptoes, books, letters and creativity.

Winston has learnt the word "BAJS!" (swedish for shit)  .. He has really enjoyed shouting it around for the last few days ... very much encouraged by his mum.  Also when he wees on the floor or anywhere he says "ISH" and points at the puddle ... i guess ISH is a version of the Swedish word "KISS" which means wee.

He stood on his tiptoes today... his own idea ... i guess he has done this before when reaching for chalk or stuff.. but today he did it for fun with a big smile... so we congratulated him a lot.

He is really loving his books ... he just brings them to me , one after another to read to him.  And when he is not bringing books to me, he is bringing magnetic letters to me , mainly his favorite ones  E, C, A, W, O, N.

trying to continue the idea of showing him relavant words, rather than just fairly random words, I have taken  a phrase from a book "a squash and a squeeze", and written it on the half A4 word cards.. so every time we get to that sentance in the book (about 8 times ), i show him that sentance on the big cards and lay them out on the floor.

I've gone off SPOT and other left the flap books.. all he wants to do is lift the flap.. no interest in the words on the page.

In terms of books for early readers, there really isnt much out there, so homemade versions of his favourite books is the way to go. Even the simple ones seem to run to 100 pages ,  once you break it down to maximum one sentance per page.

This http://www.newsweek.com/2010/07/10/the-creativity-crisis.html  and www.nagc.org/php_june09web/Interview_files/Interview.pdf  are interesting about nurturing creativity .

magnetic letters and equations

I bought a couple of Melissa&Doug magnetic wooden letters from Amazon.

I have also bought a metal shelf and screwed it to the wall ... here's a picture

magnetic wooden letters on a shelf stuck to the wall

As soon as they arrived Winston was interested in them.  I knew he knew the letter E from "nose is not toes",  but it turns out he also knows "B" ... not really surprising as it is the first letter of many words that he likes .. banana, ball, bus etc.   I think he also knows G, but cant say it at all.  He sort of twists up his little lips and puts some pressure behind them... back of the mouth sounds like G are not possible, but he kept taking the letter off the board and having a go.

He was very interested in his bellybutton today .... its not really a subject that has come up before ... so when it did I wrote a big bellybutton sign and told him what it said .. a few minutes later i showed him the sign and he went for his bellybutton ... which gives me the impression that if there is a word he is keen to know, he will pick it up almost instantly .. so while giving him a steady stream of words,  I try to spot new words which might be important/exciting to him and write those down quickly while they are still relevant.

I have started showing him some simple sums  - mainly when we are in the car (if i am not driving!).  He knows i am getting one ready, so starts to smile ... his smile growns as i show the cards (dot, plus, dots, equals, dots( ... he normally chuckles when  i show him the answer.