Spontaneous Counting

Zilla has been very interested in numbers for some time now.  Thanks to Handy Manny he often prefers to count from 1-10 in Spanish.  Counting and numbers is a concept that it seems you need to experience rather than to be taught.  In our regular conversations we not only use descriptive words to describe color and size but also the number of items.
The other night though I was thrown for a loop... while my husband and I were hanging out at the table after eating supper Zilla headed for his activity shelf and got to work on the fridge.  Before long he lined up the numbers 1-10.  Ok, so it is right to left and a few of the numbers are upside down, but the point is that at 3yrs. 6 mo. he can do it on his own - unprompted.  Once again he jumped ahead of where I thought he was!

5 Fav. Books 5つの大好きな本

From time to time I like to take note of our favorite things.  I've also been asked a few times recently for suggestions of English books which toddlers might like.  I can't speak for all toddlers but I can tell you the current 5 favorite in our home!
たまには好きな物のリストを書ける。さいきん乳幼児むけの英語の本を知りたいの声も聞きました。ここで家の今好きな5つの本を紹介のします.

 Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Eric Carle 英語でもよめる くまさんくまさんなにみてるの?  エリック カール
This book is easy to read with ASL signs (animals and colors) as well as being a bilingual J/E edition.  The kids love the simplicity of the story.
Noah's Ark cloth pop-up book 
I bought this back when Zilla was a baby and he still enjoys reading it.  Unlike many pop-up books this is very durable.  It is often in our "church bag" to take along on Sunday.
Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb by Al Perkins
The picture below is of us reading this book.  It has a nice beat and enough repetition that even non-native speakers can enjoy it.  My 3yr old English class years ago requested it at almost every lesson!
Sesame Street Look and Find Picture Puzzles
Here are a whole book of pictures for searching and comparing activities.  Zilla loves to go through a few pages at a time either by himself or with someone else.  In true Sesame style each page can also be a conversation starter, creating teachable moments.

Chika Chika Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr., John Archambault and Lois Ehlert

A newer classic, this CD/Book set is great. The story line is simple yet interesting and when read out loud you automatically slip into a rhythm.  It is also a great way to "meet" the letters in the alphabet.

Mega drumming along as we read Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb

Easter Activities

One of my favorite things to do with the kids is prepare them for an upcoming church celebration.  The past couple of months we had the time of Lent, Holy Week and now the season of Easter.  As the Easter season starts on Easter Sunday and continues for a few weeks we have plenty of time to play, discuss, read and learn.

 A yearly activity at church is Easter egg dying where we talk about the Easter story and explain that the egg is one of many Easter symbols.
With much thoughtfulness a bunch of white eggs turn into this:

One tradition we keep is hunting of a basket full of goodies.  Of course there is candy from the US (Japan hasn''t caught on to Easter...) as well as books, activities and even a VeggieTales DVD which help the kids to learn more about why we celebrate Easter.  This year we also put together little bags for their cousins and a couple of friends at church. I think Zilla had as much fun preparing and handing those out as he did searching for his own basket!

We've been doing many things at home and I hope to get posts going with some of those too.  Below is a favorite activity. Five eggs are filled with various noise making items.  There are two different kinds of coins, rice, salt and seeds.

These have been on Mega's shelf and she plays with them at least a couple of times each day.  Yesterday we added to shaking to some music and she just lit up!

Screamer to Swimmer

We signed the Zilla (Little Guy) up for a 2-day swimming class last week.  He was "that kid". The one who didn't want to go into the building, started screaming when it was time to get ready, fought the teacher when he was carried off to the pool, didn't want to participate in the lesson (but did stop crying after the first 15 min) and would only do things that he wanted, if the teacher was holding him.  
However, at the end when he came to me he gave his sister a big kiss, told me he had fun and asked to go back to the pool.  WHAT THE HECK!!!! Oh, and he said he was mad because the teacher wouldn't listen to him.  
Anyway, I must enjoy torture because we are still took him to class the next morning.  I feel so bad for the teacher though.  I always dreaded teaching new class of 3 yr olds because there is always one of "those kids" in the group... and I promised myself years ago that my kids wouldn't be like that.

Zilla refused to go for a ride so the teacher had to carry him.

At the very end the teacher finally was able to take him for a turn in the water.

One thing I know very well is that Zilla needs time to warm up to new things.  He will sit back and observe a situation before joining in.  However, once he does join in you have to watch out because he will go at it full force once he's decided to do something!

Day 2 - jumping right in

Not only willing to go for a little boat ride, he's now trying to be the captian

Finally, the smiles I knew would come...

And the open mouth taking in water all the time!  (hmm, I have the same problem...)

The lifeguard and swim teacher were both a bit impressed by the turn-around which was made in just two lessons.  Before the 1st lesson we actually took some time to visit the pool, watch what was going on from the observation area and talk about the lessons.  All of this helped, I'm sure.  However, Zilla's objection was that I would not be swimming too. It wasn't that he couldn't leave me but more that he wanted me not to miss out.  I appreciate the consideration!

At the end of the 2nd class another group was using a little slide to enter the water.  Zilla went and lined right up with the class.  From what the parents were saying it sounds like kids int he very beginner class usually don't use the slide.  Obviously there is no fear of the water here! 

Since we ended on such a good note we signed Zilla up for 2 more lessons next week, during the vacation.  Hopefully those will go as well as the last one!



8 Month Climber

For the past month or so we've been really busy.  Yes, there was the earthquake/tsunami and related issues but the bigger challenge for me personally has been keeping up with Little Miss Mega's climbing.  With the aftershocks, power outages, packing up relief goods, etc. our house has been much messier than normal.  However, through the eyes of this 8 month old, it appears the fun challenges have multiplied!

Big brother had stacked up some milk carton blocks and arranged an office on his table (I guess my messy office approach is rubbing off on him...) but once he vacated the seat his little sister climbed right up to take over the office duties.

We also are having an issue with our stairs. Miss Mega figured out how to climb them about a month ago (on the Sun. AM of course...) but it took until this past week for her to love climbing them.  Now, wherever she has the chance to scoots right up to the top.  Again, it was a Sunday morning, while we were getting ready for church, that she discovered the love of climbing.  

While I do let her climb whenever possible, we do everything we can to stop the unsupervised expeditions!

Thankfully Amazon.co.jp and other online places are getting back to normal with their delivery services because I had to order another child safety (mother's sanity) gate much sooner than I was expecting!