• Gross motor
  • A- pushed her tricycle up the ramp, then gleefully rode it down backwards. She did the same with the tricycle at the drop-in centre, too, riding it down the hill a few times.
  • A- was able to lift her feet up for a few seconds while coasting on her balance bike. She was also a little more confident on slopes. She easily made it all the way to school, and she biked part of the way back before getting too sleepy. (5.1.1 Balance)
• Fine motor
  • A- said, "Teach me how to write!" I suggested that she start with tracing lines and circles with her finger, and I also showed her how letters are made up of simpler shapes.
• Sensory
  • At school, A- was fascinated by the water table and the sand table. She spent a lot of time pouring.
  • A- wanted to ride in her high chair while being pulled around using a long towel, so W- insisted that she wear a helmet.
• Language
  • A- loves reassuring me that she's prepared. "Don't worry, I have a water bottle when you get thirsty."
  • A- and another kid were riding cars in the school yard. The other kid bumped her. A- turned to me and said, "That wasn't funny at all."
  • A- didn't want to go to school, which worked out because we were both a bit tired and sniffly. We stayed home and focused on letters instead. I made a chart of the letters she recognized and what words she associated with them.
• Music
  • At music class, A- walked around to music. She liked the Wishy Washy song and shook the bells during instrument time. We ended with a fire drill.
• Art
  • We tried sprinkling salt on glue trails as suggested by the Artful Parenting book, but the results were a little meh.
• Self-care and independence
  • A- tied a scarf around her waist all by herself. (5.2.1 Dressing)
  • A- glugged lots of water from her small bottle, refilling it a number of times all by herself.
  • A- sat on the potty so long that her leg got numb. W- noticed her trying to stomp or shake out the strange feeling.
  • A- ate lots of crackers, cheese, and peaches during snack time. She kept asking for permission and serving herself with tongs.
  • A- really wanted a sippy cup, but I didn't like any of the designs in store.
• Eating
  • A- usually eats just my egg whites, but this time, A- wanted to try egg yolk. She rated it and declared, "I love egg yolk." She also tried Japanese curry at dinner, and she liked it too. She still generally doesn't like yolks or sauces, but it was cool that she tried without any pressure from us.
  • A- ate her whole ice cream cone.
• Sleep
  • A-'s middle-of-the-night tantrum calmed down as soon as W- came in and gave her a hug. She wanted milk and food. W- gave her milk, but drew the line at a snack.A- asked me for a hug afterwards, and then fell asleep again.
  • A- had a small tantrum about using the toilet first, but I think it was because she was tired. Still crying, she followed me into room while I set up her nest. I asked her what she preferred, and she answered. Once the bed was set up the way she liked, she hopped right in, quietly listened to Cattus Petasatus, and fell asleep holding her stuffed toy.
  • After lots of reading, A- wanted milk. I offered to take her down for milk if we brushed teeth afterwards. She decided to stay in bed, and eventually quietly fell asleep.
  • At bedtime, she asked for a bath, so I have her one. I read her a couple of books, and then said I was too sleepy. She fell asleep calmly snuggling Sheep while nestling between two comforters. I stayed on the crib mattress, which was also on the floor. In the middle of the night, she abandoned her nest and snuggled up next to me on the crib mattress.
• Emotion
  • A- asked me to draw a lonely A-. Then she asked me to draw W- hugging her.
• Household
  • A- requested sushi and fetched me a can of salmon.
• Social
  • A- wanted to play with my glasses, so I had to set firm boundaries.
  • We caught up with Joy and J- at the EarlyON centre. J- was comfortable holding my hand and waiting with me.
  • A- played with independence. She asked me to say, "You're not allowed to go up the hill." She ran up the hill, then wanted me to chase her and carry her down.
  • We went to the EarlyON centre and caught up with Joy and J-. A- enjoyed playing with the riding toys, and she gobbled up lots of nectarine chunks at lunch.
  • A- spent some time with J- while I took a much-needed nap. She asked her to read "With My Daddy," changing the words to refer to J-.
• Pretend
  • A- had fun playing with the big cardboard boxes in the schoolyard. She pretended they were houses, and we visited each other. She also pretended that one was an oven and that she was a carrot muffin.
  • A- asked me to use the long, thin towel to tie a pretend bike trailer to her balance bike. She had lots of fun bringing it around.
  • The doctor's kit that J- gave A- was immediately put to use. She liked the dental mirror and the stethoscope.
  • A- really liked the giraffe that W- made for her using the Little Engineer set. They added wheels and wings to it, and she flew it around the house.
  • A- merrily typed on her cardboard laptop. She said, "I'm getting a thought out of my head."
  • J- gave us a doctor's kit for A-, which she immediately had fun using.
  • A- asked me to tape the wooden box to the side of the front shelf. She pretended it was an airplane bassinet. She put a Duplo figure inside the box, carried a chair over, and sat in the chair while periodically checking on the Duplo kid.
• Cognition
  • As soon as A- woke up, she said, "I want to get a star from IKEA."
• Kaizen
  • I couldn't find my Presto card until I remembered that A- had insisted on putting it in her backpack. W- gave me a cardholder so that I could try keeping the card on my keychain or on a lanyard.
• Us
  • While updating my business accounts in preparation for my fiscal year end, I noticed my bank had started charging me a small fee for tax filing. Turned out the tax filing service had changed to have a monthly fee. I called to cancel, since I had stopped using the service in 2016 or so.

Blog posts

• 2018-09-17 Emacs news
• Weekly review: Week ending September 14, 2018

Sketches

• 2018-09-17a Considering A-'s learning environments #parenting #ece
• 2018-09-18a Next steps for pre-literacy #ece #literacy
• 2018-09-18b A-, play, and pre-literacy #large #ece #literacy

Time

Category	The other week	Last week	Diff	h/wk	Diff h/wk
Discretionary – Productive	1.1	1.9	0.8	3.1	1.3
Unpaid work	6.8	7.5	0.7	12.5	1.2
Sleep	39.0	39.4	0.4	66.2	0.7
Business	0.8	1.1	0.3	1.8	0.5
A-	40.8	40.8	0.0	68.5	0.0
Discretionary – Play	0.3	0.3	0.0	0.5	0.0
Discretionary – Social	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0
Discretionary – Family	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0
Personal	11.3	9.1	-2.2	15.3	-3.7