I have such a backup of exciting things to blog about :o) When I started blogging, I thought to myself, how am I going to find something to blog about everyday? Well, I really haven’t had a problem as these kiddos of mine have kept me busy!
Last Saturday, our Parents and Teachers teacher came over to our house to see Nathan and Autumn. Parents as Teachers is a free program through the school district that we are in (Mehlville) but it is offered nation wide in most school districts. It is a free program for children under the age of 5. They visit every other month and bring a bag full of fun toys (educational activities), they screen your child and give you tons of handouts and ideas. It is a WONDERFUL program and did I say it is FREE? Oh, and they also offer events at the preschool throughout the year- my favorite is ‘Things that Go’ where they have all sorts of vehicles that park and the kids get to see fire trucks, helicopters, icecream trucks (we got free icecream, too!), etc., etc. They also do fun activities such as crafts and games, etc. I cannot praise the program enough.
Nathan knows Judy by her HUGE bag that she brings over each time that she visits. He knows that she is always pulling out fun toys and he doesn’t even realize that they are educational. At this last visit, she focused on testing Nathan’s knowledge of numbers, counting and colors. Ok, ok… I hate to brag… but, maybe she was just being really nice but she said Nathan can do things that some 4 year olds still struggle with. So, what I am wondering is, where did Nathan get his big brain from? Because, I know it isn’t ME! lol!! Maybe he got it from his Uncle Jeff, who knows! But, what she did was set out 10 cards and she pointed to the number on each card and asked Nathan to tell her what that number was… the cards went up to 10 and he said each number correctly. She said that at age 3 the child should be able to count to their age (3) so this was good that he counted to 10. Then, she brought out this huge container full of brightly colored puff balls. She asked Nathan to set out 3 purple balls, then 6 pink, and so forth. He did really well with this… I wish I had a picture, this is something I would love to make myself for Nathan. She had a clear rubbermaid container full of these balls and they are furry and all different colors and sizes. I can’t think of the name of them but they sell them in big bags at Michaels. She had sand shovels, tweezers, etc. for Nathan to pick the balls out of the box with. So fun!!
Then, she brought out these flash cards and they each had a jar on them with stickers of bugs. She asked Nathan how many bugs were on each card, as it was a different quantity on each card. She told him to count the bugs to find out how many there were, and he didn’t count, he would just say, “There is 5 bugs”. She said that was really good!
She also suggested that we start using puzzles with the jigsaw edges instead of wooden puzzles, as he has mastered the wooden puzzles and they aren’t a challenge to him. I have some of these puzzles downstairs that Jeremi got from a coworker and I will have to see how Nathan does with them. I love puzzles! They are Disney ones and I believe it says age 3 on the box.
Then, she brought a bunch of toys for Autumn and a mirror for her to look in. We didn’t do as much with Autumn as she took a nap through most of the class, but she said the class will be more focused on Autumn in August.
She also wants us to set up a time to bring Nathan to the preschool to have him evaluated. She said he will go inside a room that is all glass walls and they will test him on counting, colors, etc. (a lot of what she did Saturday) and also his hearing. We aren’t sending Nathan to preschool just yet but I think it would be great to see how he does at the evaluation.
She left me with a stack full of papers that go over milestones, fun activities to do, etc. with my 3 year old and 7 month old. I need to read them during one of my pumping sessions. :o)
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