Monkey Talk

T moved to the "Monkey" classroom at Bright Horizons in September. Drop off has been hard for the last few weeks as he really doesn't want us to leave, but his teachers assure us that he cheers up only moments after we're gone. By the time we come back for him at the end he's so settled in that he's not ready to head home right away. I found him in the reading corner almost every day last week either by himself or with another child. Last Thursday he and a friend were sharing and discussing a book side by side when I came in.

For the last two weeks he's teachers have sent a little "newsletter" letting us know that that kids have been doing. Here's an excerpt from September 11, 2012:

Today started off with children making choices around the room. Then we enjoyed some outside time in the sunshine. For circle time we read the book The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry, and the big hungry bear by Don and Audrey Wood. We sang a few songs such as If your happy and you know it, the days of the week song and five little ducks. For morning activities we enjoyed water and bubbles in the sensory table, colored blocks and ABC magnets.

We asked the kids the question of the day and here are their responses.

Q: What color do you like?
A:Torin- A blue

... and One for September 17, 2012:

We have had a busy week. We have been working on Colors and sorting. Everything that we have been playing with has several colors such as the pegs and boards. We have wood bears that are colored and have numbers on them. Colored wood cubes. The children have been enjoying playing with all these. We have them at the tables in the morning and then at different times through out the day. Usually we have bowels with them and they like to match up the colors of the items with the color of the bowels. They are really enjoying this.

We have White sand in the sensory table and they have been enjoying pouring it in the tubes and then dumping it out. They also really like picking up handfuls and watching it fall out through their fingers.

Our new gym has been a big hit for our room, they all really enjoy playing in there with the balls and running around. They also like to climb up the big blue wedge and jump off on to the green mats.

Today during Circle time we talked about what we were wearing. They all gave their own answer.

Torin- A Baseball

The "A Baseball" remarks reminds me that he wore a PJ top to school Tues-Friday last week. He wore a real shirt on Monday because his favorite (for the time) orange shirt was clean and we were able to talk him out of his PJs and into the orange shirt. On the "A Baseball" day he was wearing his PJ top with a little cartoon baseball player on it, so the answer makes more sense that one might initially think. Today I convinced him out of his PJ top by asking if his favorite (for the time) piggy stuffed animal could wear his PJ top. The piggy was sad T didn't want to share, so T showed compassion and let me take off the PJ top and put it on the piggy ... then cheerfully put on his orange t-shirt. Getting him into pants - even pants with airplanes on the cuff) was another story.

Being the mom of a nearly two year old is much harder than I expected - mostly because I'm such a pushover - ugh! He's defiantly got his own agenda and isn't having any of mine (unless they happen to coincide), but he's still a very sweet and compassionate little boy who likes to snuggle. Despite the little force of nature personality factor, I have it pretty darn good!