This was the first week of going to drop-in centres after a long break. The parent workers reassure me that it’s enough in terms of kindergarten readiness, and that I don’t have to worry about setting up lots of activities or picking a preschool curriculum. Next week, music classes start again, so we’ll add those to the mix. We found a good swimming pool for Friday trips, and we can go to the science centre or the museum when we want something different. It’s a pretty comfortable routine, and A- seems to like it a lot.

Lots of cooking during the week, too. W- made beef bulgogi, and I made Parmesan-crusted chicken. Yum yum! Sardine pasta wasn’t as popular, but it was good to try.

• Kaizen
  • I asked the drop-in centre teacher about unit planning. She recommended thinking about different centres and building up our supplies.
  • My headband/scarf arrived from the Art of Where! The letters, numbers, days of the week, and months of the year printed well, and they’ve already been handy as a quick reference for teaching A-.
  • I tweaked my LaTeX template to make a properly centered photobook. I drafted a social story about playground rhythms.
  • Raising Human Beings looks like a good book on collaborative problem solving like How to Talk So Little Kids Listen.
  • Next swim trip improvement: bring a small picnic blanket to catch food.
• Us
  • I issued myself a dividend check.
• Sensory
  • We went swimming again. A- wasn’t keen on the hot shower or the contrast with the cold air, but she had fun bouncing in the water, and she practised going down the ladder.
• Language
  • A- independently read a picture book while waiting for us.
  • A- was interested in punctuation marks. We used playdough and stamps to make question marks and exclamation marks.
  • “There’s my favourite teacher!”
  • Me: “Your daddy is very wise.” A-: “And easy to train!” W-: “I don’t know where that came from.” Me: “I know! That’s from Charlotte and the Rock, but…”
  • A- at bedtime: “More books!” Me: “Two books? Three books?” A-: “Four books. Five books. Twenty-one. Twenty-two.” Me: “Hey, wait a minute…”
• Eating
  • Creamy vegan potato leek soup: A- had quite a few spoonfuls. Surprisingly nice with the toasted sesame seeds she sprinkled on top of my bowl. We paired it with ham sandwiches.
  • Chicken katsu: Did half chicken katsu and half Parmesan-crusted chicken. Yum! A- liked the Parmesan-crusted chicken and even polished it off when we had leftovers for lunch.
• Social
  • A- sang “Bahay Kubo” clearly and correctly, except for the last line, which she changed to “Sa paligid-ligid, kamay at paa” again. I laughed and said, “That’s not how it goes!” She said, “I love making Mama laugh.”
  • We made it to the drop-in centre even though it was so cold. A- had fun playing with the sand table and the big foam blocks.
  • A- wanted to play on a little obstacle course set up at school, but the other kids were taking turns too quickly for her to feel comfortable getting the hang of it. I started thinking about the tempo of a playground and how to help A- adapt.
  • A- smooshed her face into mine and said, “You cannot breathe and you cannot see.”
  • A- had fun playing with Lola over video chat. Lola made animal noises and A- guessed them.
  • A- tugged on my sleeve. “I’m cooking,” I said. She said, “May I have my mommy, please?” Naturally, I stopped and snuggled her.
  • A- changed out of her pajamas to another top and pants that she chose and wore by herself. She noticed that the pants were green with white flowers, and she remembered that I had pajama pants like that. She asked me to change into them. When I did, she happily said, “Matching!” For good measure, we both changed into red flannel tops too.
• Pretend
  • A- was a little scared of a spider, but i was able to flip her perspective by pretending to be a spider who was scared of her. We spent the next couple of days pretending to be spiders.
  • A- liked roleplaying preschool based on a book we read. She packed her backpack, went to “school,” put the bag in her cubby, and sat down for circle time.
• World
  • “This phone works again. It got some power. I can use it.”

Blog posts

• Weekly review: Week ending January 4, 2019
• 2019-01-07 Emacs news

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