When your grandkids, 6 and 3, just know that you need a cement truck tattoo on Christmas Eve, you proudly sport that tattoo until it wears off, eventually, I guess…
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My GD turned 4 yesterday! She and her parents are here for the holidays. We spent the morning at the local children’s museum, which she loved.Then, at dinner we went to a local cafe (we got a private room) and had pizza/salad and cake. Family friends with a 5 yo and 2yo were there too. The 5 yo and my GD will be in my younger D’s wedding in May.
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That sounds lovely! And so nice re the other wedding coming up as well.
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We got a book of art created by our first grader and published by this company:
Excellent gift!
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GS had a great Xmas day. Mexican restaurant friend got him a book that sings the lyrics when a button is pushed. He has been carrying it around every since. He also got a basket of winnie the poo bath toys that were a huge hit
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It is so cute to see how a little item is so important to these young children. I had found a very small kid sized Green Bay Packer soft football, and 3 YO GS2 sleeps with it at night, and carries it around at home. He gets exuberant and wants to throw or kick it in the house, and then it is put up until bedtime.
I brought along some small colorful wooden blocks that were DDs - GS1 and GD1 (ages 5 and 6) really took to them, building towers and other structures.
There was a large gift bag from Santa for all the Gkids - there was a small Elmo, Big Bird, and Cat in the Hat along with some of these books. All the kids are taking to these stuffed toys. The Gkids have a lot of Dr Seuss books and some of the others. We were at Sea World’s Sesame Street night parade (Sea World with all the C-mas decor and also a live nativity story show including lots of live animals including camels). Memorable times together.
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Good man. Go Pack
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I took GD1 out to lunch today. A red truck pulled up and it had NYFD letters on it. When GD1 asked what it was, I just said it’s a fire truck. GD1 shook her head and said, “it’s an ambulance.” I then looked up, indeed on top of NYFD it had “ambulance” word. I think GD1 may beginning to recognize words.
I used to have to give GD1 a lot of toys to play with when we went out to eat, but today for one hour we talked. D1 asked what we talked about. We actually just chit chatted. We saw someone who walked by with 2 dogs. She said, “awww, they are so cute. Do you think they are friends?” She asked me what the ambulance drivers were doing sitting in the truck. I said that I thought they were having lunch. She asked why they didn’t want to come in the restaurant to eat, wouldn’t they be more comfortable?
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What age is GD?
She is turning 4 in few weeks.
I noticed she is very good at reasoning (debating). On our way back from lunch, I asked her if she wanted to carry my umbrella (it wasn’t raining so she wasn’t going to get anything out of it). She asked me, “whose umbrella is it?” I said, “it’s mine.” She said, “you carry it.”
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High emotional intelligence at that age.
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I always said (and I’ve been asked by many over the years) why/how all 3 of my kids were well spoken, good vocabulary and excellent receptive speech at a young age.
My answer was and is in most daily cases, talk to then like you would address an adult. Believe them capable of conversation . Encourage serve and return conversation. Don’t assume at a restaurant they should just color and be quiet. Kids like being talked to. They like having a conversation and they are curious - let them be.
@oldfort GD is a perfect example of that. Sounds like she talks as she has been talked to. As long as it’s constructive conversation that is healthy!
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I’m in recovery mode. We had one grand visiting for 5 days. Just turned 2 and so fun. We had the local grands over and at times had 4 kids under age 3. It was wild. The two oldest are now at the age where they played together. One of the grandchildren has some serious food allergies which is challenging. We all took our hand washing seriously and were careful to not eat or leave food lying around.
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Packer family - DD1 screamed louder through the Thursday evening game than anyone. DH would say a line, and the two older Gkids would repeat it several times - stuff like “hold that line” or something about first down and do it again. Real fan spirit.
I agree about talking to kids in a mature manner - answer their questions, reason with them, hold them to the standards as others have with manners and good behavior. GS2 (age 3) likes to repeat “Be good Behave” - it helps remind him of what gets rewarded. He got a lollipop for being good in church and missed one the prior service because of his behavior.
Doing some word drills with GS4 (kindergarten work at home, two pages), it is interesting to get feedback from him showing his mind memory paths - how he is filing away memory words and sometimes states a word earlier in the page “icicle” instead of “inch” - and how some of the language ‘rules’ are clicking with him. Long letter sounds, short letter sounds, etc. How ‘inch’ has a short I and ‘icicle’ has a long I sound.
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My GS5 plays in the mud, gravel, snow. He is learning civil engineering techniques by damning up the rainwater flow, trenching with a trowel, exploring suction by losing his boots to the mud, and future janitorial techniques by learning how to clean the mud off himself and his clothes. His mature words include, “You’re poopoo” and “poop” and “butt” and “bum.” No drill sheets here. DGD almost 3 is making progress with speaking, but non family members can’t understand her much, and even family members can’t always tell what she is saying. She is still our cuddly baby, and has low muscle tone. Other DGD almost 3 is a wordsmith, challenging, exploring, modifying her words and saying “no” in many ways and forms, not to mention, deliberately annoying her big brother and pushing his buttons when she is in a mood. I love them all fiercely and totally.
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Any recommendations for some sort of sling hip style carrier? One grandchild (about 26 lbs)is low tone and doesn’t yet walk. It”we have reached the time where its hard for us hold and carry for more than a few minutes. After an afternoon I’ve got a very sore back.
Does this low tone child see PT or OT? They may have some ideas/suggestions.
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The word drills were 4K ‘homework’. They have a rapid word page that they do each week. The word drill page was very instructional, and over time GS1 was learning the various ‘lessons’ with our language, short vowels, long vowels, first vowel change with ‘e’ at the word end like gate and cake. The student learns to break out the phonic sounds, some become memory words. They build up their reading words, and as they gain confidence they learn to read. They have a week with some of this, so short sessions with gaining successes.
GS1 and GS2 both talk fast and don’t articulate well - and working on that. DH has trouble understanding them until they talk slower. GS1 and GS2 both articulate better with ‘practice’ (repeating word after adult and looking at how the mouth/lips are positioned. DD1 had speech therapy for articulation and morphology (morphology example, dog and dogs pictured, would not recognize ‘s’ - the group). GSs are improving a lot. When GS1 was young, he had a few speech therapy sessions - and then DD1 and I have been using what we learned from when DD1 had speech therapy. They love certain books which help get them articulating various words. GS1 is doing the early reading books, and at school accelerated reading (0.5 - 0.9 level).
We have seen the full year 4K work with GD1, who is now in first grade; she did the 4K schoolwork last year.
Yes, they are dialed into all the services. That is a good suggestion.
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Little kid gave me a Tush Baby, but I have not had a chance to use it because the baby decided to walk at 9.5 months! Tush Baby was highly recommended to kid by some of her friends. Seems sturdy and well made! Maybe I could just send you the one I have!
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