Posts in Category: Uncategorized
January, February, March….
Grace is definitely learning things at school, and one of them is the month’s of the year. They sing the calendar song, and today it got stuck in her head. She was running around this afternoon singing, “January, February, March, April, Marry, June, July…” (yes, “Marry” not May, no matter how many times Donné corrects her….who knows). Over and over and over she sung, happily enjoying the song going around in her head.
Screaming
Grace has been screaming quite a bit lately. Part (probably most) of it is definitely playing with sounds (not that it is more palatable that way, but at least she is learning), and part of it is frustration when we don't immediately understand what she is trying to communicate to us, and part of it is just plain tantrum.
Having a chat with Emma
This was Grace's first chat with the first friend she made at school (photo courtesy of her teacher)
Birthday!
The first words out of Grace's mouth this morning were, "It's weekend! Go to Diya's birthday party! Go to Isabelle's birthday party!" Yes, two birthday parties today….
Maria Montessori Day
Today is the anniversary of Maria Montessori’s birthday (check out Google’s Montessori logo), so the school celebrated with an international day and Grace went as Italy (there are more photos on the school’s Facebook page).
Independent!
Shock and awe peeps, shock and awe. I was in shock and awe this morning when I dropped Grace off at school. We came in, the teachers said hello (Grace hardly gave them the time of day), put her bag into her locker, put on her slippers (no moaning at all so far), told Emma she had lost the crown (which I recovered later), big hug goodbye, then she went through to the main room and did not go to Janine. She cruised over to the table, collected some paint or glue and started her day. No input, no clinging, just happy and independent.
A swimming lessons & some stories
Grace’s awesomeness is starting to come in. Today she was singing Amazing Grace in the car, “Amazing Grace, Amazing Grace, Amazing Me.” Daddy’s girl.
This is a fairly long (10 minutes) and possibly boring video, with no catchy background music, of today’s swimming lesson (at Aquatoads Swim School)
A detailed run-down
Grace gave me an extremely detailed run down of her school day today, which is unusual because it is normally quite difficult to get much info out of her. She first glued and “Wiwwow” joined her (Willow is a difficult name if you can’t pronounce L’s). They were gluing cotton wool to paper. Then onto practical life for some pouring, measuring and bubble making. After that Kim sat with her while she ate her snack. This was followed by “floor mat work” and today she did the red rods (the third picture). And then what did you do Grace? “Not group time, not home time, not time for anything.” She sung a song in group time and they read a book about four piggies that took a drive in a car.
Monkey gets a name!
Monkey has never had a proper name, he has always just been Monkey, but the way Grace says, "monkey" it often sounds like "Mikey" (or "maatjie" for the Afrikaans speakers, which I've always thought was appropriate). So I was swinging her today and Monkey happened to be around, so I said, "What's monkey's name?" to which she answered, "Monkey" (or "Mikey", I'm never really sure). So I started to joke around around and say, "What's his name? Monkey?" and she would answer, "Monkey" and I would ask, "Mikey?" to which she would answer, "Monkey" (or was that Mikey?) and the game would start again.
Family swim
Grace just loved it. Not only did she get to go for a swim, but she had both her mommy & daddy in the water with her, and mommy was definitely a novelty. She had fun swimming on her pool noodle between the two of us, doing dolphin dives and blowing bubbles while riding on mommy's back, spending lots of time blowing bubbles while collecting her diving toys from the step, and swimming between the two of us. Lots of fun and a special time for all of us.