• Kaizen
  • I read Deep Work and started thinking about what parenting could look like if I treated it as seriously as the academic and business examples from the book. What could deep work, deliberate practice, and rapt attention look like in terms of caregiving?
  • W- thought about all the snow that’s forecast for tomorrow. He brought the shovels to the house and made sure the sled was easy to access.
  • I learned more about how to make REST API and COM requests in Python. Very promising!
  • Following a pointer from The Knowledge Gap, I checked out Core Knowledge Language Arts’ resources for preschool. I liked the detailed list of skills and the recommended books, music, and art. I want to incorporate some of those into A-‘s learning.
• Us
  • I finished reading “Happier” (2007) by Tal Ben-Shahar. It got me thinking about meaning, purpose, and strengths; how to nourish the feeling of time affluence; how to sprinkle happiness boosters throughout my week; and how to apply appreciative inquiry to parenting as well as teach A- to do so too.
  • We knew A- wouldn’t sleep for a while, so we bought groceries and cooked curry.
  • One of the other parents gave me a LEGO kit for A-. She had gotten a good deal on the LEGO and wanted to thank me. We should think of something to give back. I know, she likes coffee.
  • I read a little more of Overwhelmed. I feel really grateful that W- is so awesome. For my part, I’d like to develop more life skills so that I can share the load better, and get more used to giving myself permission for leisure and exploration.
• Gross motor
  • A- tried throwing the beach ball with one hand. She could throw it pretty far.
  • A- had so much energy before bed. She did lots of forward rolls, even kicking off the wall.
• Fine motor
  • A- worked on building the LEGO Easter Egg Hunt set. She helped find pieces and put them together. She described the process that was illustrated at the beginning of the instructions.
• Language
  • “I got lots of nibbles. Can you write that down?”
• Art
  • A- was curious about erasers, so we used pencils to shade paper and then we erased shapes and lines.
  • A- spent some time playing with the piano. I guided her to imagine that her hands were friends running towards each other, jumping around, and so on.
• Self-care and independence
  • A- wanted me to read a few more books and was a bit discouraged because she couldn’t read them by herself. I want to reflect on bedtime a bit more to see if there’s a better way for us to do this. Maybe I can move independent play practice time to the afternoon and do more snuggly reading after bedtime.
  • A- really wanted to eat her yogurt with a baby spoon instead of the metal teaspoon I offered her, so she got into her tower and I helped her wash it.
  • The drop-in centre near school closes from 1pm to 2:30pm, so I offered A- the choice of signing up for flexible child care so that she could keep playing during that break, or going with me to the library or a different drop-in centre. She wanted to keep playing there. I completed the intake form and left her playing with her teacher from class and two of her classmates. When I picked her up at 2:30, the childcare workers said that she had behaved well. She wanted to join the other kids for snack time, so we stayed around for that and some more playtime. She fell asleep on the way home.
  • The doctor suggested removing the carpet to help with allergies, and using hydrocortisone to help with A-‘s rash.
  • A- and I were snuggling. A- leaned forward and bonked my glasses. That hurt, so I said oww. She immediately backed off, stopped playing, said she was so tired, and tucked herself into bed.
• Emotion
  • A- got a little hangry in the afternoon. She had started out upset because her regular pants got wet when she shoveled snow without snow pants on, and that evolved into a full-blown tantrum when we found out that the ham I had been thinking of giving her had already gotten finished by someone else. She eventually calmed down with lots of potatoes and yogurt, and we talked a little about what it’s like to be hungry and angry.
• Household
  • In her kindergarten readiness class, we helped the kids roll out and cut shortbread cookies.
  • “I’m not so happy with store-bought bread. … We should make it more often.”
• Social
  • W- looked at Popo’s tenant’s washing machine while A- and I hung out with Popo and Gung-gung. A- is more comfortable with Popo than with Gung-gung, but I’m sure they’ll eventually get the hang of each other.
  • A- told us about her complicated feelings about one of her friends.
  • When I picked A- up from class, she was excited to tell me about her friend, R-. She wanted to play with R- after school, but R- was still in the classroom because of the parent-teacher interview. R- and her mom headed home after school, so we didn’t get to play with them. Still, it was great to see A- so happy about one of her classmates. She told me how they played with cars.
  • I drew our plan for the day and decided that a stroller would be the best way to cover the distance. A- said, “I scribble out the stroller.” She wanted to ride in the sled instead, but there wasn’t enough snow. I’m glad she wanted to propose changes, though!
  • “The babysitter is too boring.” I wonder what I can do to help A- learn how to ask babysitters for what she wants.
• Pretend
  • A- pretended that a cardboard box was a car. She said, “I’m driving to the Great City. I will need to stop for gas.”
• Cognition
  • W- used finger-counting to guide A- in exploring questions such as “How many threes are in six?”
  • A- wanted to play with tangrams. She completed some shapes with a lot of help.
  • A- was interested in a large 30-piece floor puzzle with irregularly-shaped pieces. I helped her put together the edges, and then she placed the inner pieces by referring to the picture on the box.
• World
  • A- liked leaving footprints in the light snow.
• Other
  • We attended the Remembrance Day ceremony at the Royal Conservatory of Music before class.
  • It was interesting observing A-‘s kindergarten readiness class. During free play time, she focused on feeling the magnetic letters repel each other and checking which surfaces worked with the magnetic letters, even when her classmates ran all around her. During carpet time, she stayed in the corner and didn’t do many of the hand motions, preferring to cover her ears when she anticipated particularly loud parts. She scrambled to the front when the teacher started reading a book, though, and often spoke up when she couldn’t see the book.

Blog posts

• Making the most of the next three weeks of kindergarten readiness
• 2019-11-11 Emacs news

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