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  1. Speech Pathologist update

    July 18, 2011 by Michelle

    It's been a while since I've posted and this is largely because things have been crazy busy around here. But I thought I would post an update on our speech pathology visits.

    We have finished up our 5 week stint and it was with mixed emotions when it ended last week.  Overall, I am glad that we did the program but I"m not sure how much of a difference it made. Boo was already doing much better before she started the program and the speech pathologist said that because Boo had made such a dramatic change (thanks to the osteopath!), the number of sessions could be cut back.

    We did a number of exercises over the course of 5 weeks (and I had homework each week :) ). Some of these exercises were good and some were a little too basic for Boo. To summarise:

    1. Week 1: OWL which stands for 'observe', 'watch' and 'listen'. Basically, to take your child's lead and not interrupt if they are engrossed in an activity (sounds similar to what Montessori recommends!)

    2. Week 2: reading different books and getting Boo to complete sentences, pointing out things on that page and reading different types of books (e.g. pop up books, picture books, story books etc)

    3. Week 3: Nursey rhymes – singing lots of songs, getting Boo to sing along and doing the action to words

    4. Week 4: Choice: Giving Boo two choices with everything and getting her to tell me which one she would like (rather than "yes", "no" responses).

    5. Week 5: Arts and craft with some "OWL" thrown in for good measure.

    I found that Week 4 presented the best developmental exercises for Boo. Giving her a choice and getting her to say what she wanted is a great idea. It took a lot of practice and we still occassionally get the "uh" sound when we give her a choice rather than the choice itself, but I think it is a great exercise

    Week 1 and week 5 exercises are akin to what Montessori suggests and the activities I did with Boo for these weeks were Montesori activities but it was interesting to see Montessori inspired thinking infused in child development programs.

    So now we are on our own – there will be a follow up in 6 months, but I go into the next 6 months with a world of confidence and a lighter heart :)

    Category Motherhood, Other | Tags: , | No Comments

  2. Moving House Soon!

    July 5, 2011 by Michelle

    They say that moving house is one of the most stressful experiences and given that we will be moving in a month or so, I'm not looking forward to it!

    I haven't yet worked out a strategy with the move. Except that I'm avoiding buying anything major until we move into the new house as I don't want to move anything unnecessarily. But I did succumb and buy 2 large rolls of toilet paper as they were on special :P

    We haven't started packing yet! But I do have a few large boxes. I'm thinking we might just gradually do it and have a garage sale for all the things that we don't want to take with us. Clothes that we don't want we'll donate to the local Salvos.

    If you have any tips, especially with moving house with a 2 year old, please let me know!

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  3. Montessori books

    June 28, 2011 by Michelle

    The first step in looking at/considering the Montessori philosophy was to do some reading. But rather than buy a heap of Montessori books, I went to our local library and borrowed / reserved all the Montessori books I could get my hands on! These are the ones I took out:

    • Montessori a Modern Approach by Paula Polk Lillard
    • Montessori from the start by Paula Polk Lillard and Lynn Lillard Jessen
    • Teaching Montessori in the home by Elizabeth Hainstock
    • Basic Montessori by David Gettman

    My thoughts on the above?

    Both books by Paual Polk Lillard provde a good overview of Montessori – as someone that has no understanding at all, these were a good introduction to the philosophy, logic and research.  I found "Montessori from the start" a little easier to read but both were just as good.  As Boo is just over 2 years old, "Montessori from the start" was a useful read.

    The last 2 books go through the Montessori activities but in slightly different styles – Teaching Montessori goes through them in ages, whilst Basic Montessori goes through the activities in stages.  Basic Montessori has very detailed instructions for each activity with a good explanation of why these activities are necessary. Teaching Montessori is more of a summarised version and a little easier to follow.

    But if you can get the books from your library, then I recommend that you get all of them out as they all are useful in their own way. Plus its free, so if you like a particular book, you can then go off and buy it!

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  4. What I don’t love about the Wiggles

    June 23, 2011 by Michelle

    Hoop-Dee-Doo! It's a Wiggly Party (CD) ~ The Wiggles (Artist) Cover Art

    When I was pregnant I swore that my daughter would not be overly exposed/become accustomed to all the standard kids labels/characters – for example, Dora the explorer, the Wiggles, Hi-5. But I have to say that some of these have their merits. And Boo LOVES the Wiggles – I'm not a massive fan of them, but their music is cool and anything that gets Boo up and dancing around is great by me.

    Anyway, back to what I don't love about the Wiggles. We borrowed a Wiggles music CD (I try to limit Boo's TV viewing as much as possible) from the library and Boo was naturally very excited. But two days ago she was sitting next to me and removed the CD cover with the library barcode and I have been searching for it ever since! High and low, through rubbish bins, books, under the couch, under the bed, in the ktichen, in her room and in places where, seriously, there was no chance of her ditching the cover there but I was very desperate.

    So I have about 2 weeks to find this cover and if I can't, then I'm dreading upfront up to the library and explaining the whole situation. Maybe the good news is that I get to have a Wiggles CD on the cheap (I presume I will need to pay for it). But in the meantime… back to the hunt!

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  5. Almost the best invention since sliced bread

    June 21, 2011 by Michelle

    from automatism

    I've always been a big lover of books – ever since I was young, I would immerse myself in them (much to my parent's chagrin – but that is another story!). So when Boo came along, I immediately wanted her to enjoy books as much as I did. But books are incredibly expensive and being on a tight budget, we resorted to garage sales and secondhand stores.  These filled up her bookshelf very quickly. Being cheap meant we could buy lots for the same amount of money as you would buy 1 brand new book for.

    However, the downside with this is that you can't be picky with the books you get. Even though Boo enjoys the books she has, there are some classics that we will probably never find in these shops/places. And it's these books I have resorted to buying brand new.  So when my friend put me onto Booko I was in 7th heaven! This site allows you to type in the title, author keyword etc of a book that you are interested in and it finds the cheapest deal including shipping. And it's easy to use. What more do you want?? :)

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