It is hard to believe but Monsieur will turn five next week. (Note: This post was started in early April…things got busy, new bub and all, so I am just getting back to it now, mid-June!)
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Sleep: I don’t know that this even needs mentioning anymore! He did start wanting snuggles at night after stories, so we have a routine where some nights I snuggle with him after lights out, and some nights R snuggles with him. He started this around second term last year, so I think it started as a way to get some time with us at the end of the day. It is quite nice. Sometimes he’ll talk about things that take his fancy, or things that are on his mind. Sometimes we’ll meditate together and sometimes he just wants to be held until he falls asleep. It can br brutal for R and I though, on the occasions where we fall asleep too, as it is hard to do anything afterward with all the sleep chemicals running around in our brains. He also went through a stage of coming into our room in the morning and climbing into bed next to me for morning snuggles. That was nice, but reasonably short-lived. Now, if he wakes before we do, he will often creep into the hallway with Lucky and Snuggle Doon and his torch, and start reading books in the hallway!
Food: Fruit and yoghurt continue to be favourites. He has an ongoing thing with his grandad where he “steals” Grandad’s yoghurt whenever we stay with them! Usually he “steals” Grandad’s fruit as well! This year at kinder they are doing BBQ Fridays; every week one or two kinder parents goes in and cooks the BBQ lunch for the kinder kids. Often when I pick him up on a Friday, all the kids are outside and music is playing and there is a real Friday feel. Monsieur quickly decided that BBQ Friday days called for a special dinner too, usually chosen by him. We’d imagined at some point doing special meals, like tacos or pizza, on Fridays, so it fits in well.
Language: Monsieur is coming up with very long, involved stories now, often using aspects of movies or stories or things that he has heard. I love to listen to him playing in his room as he creates stories, often doing the different voices of characters, or telling his cars or toys things that they can and can’t do. He is really interested in reading too, and is constantly amazing me with the words that he can read or recognise already. I haven’t really been working with him on reading skills, so I was wondering where it was coming from. His kinder does some reading and writing but I don’t think it is strongly emphasised as it is a play-based learning kinder. Then the other day I was watching him on the iPad and realised that all the educational apps I’ve put on are paying off! He was using one of the apps that are designed to teach reading. It seems to be working! Well. It made me feel a lot more positive about the amount of iPad time he has been getting these past few months! I’ve also bought some ABC Reading Eggs activity books and started going through one with him today. He really enjoys activities like circling all the objects that start with a particular letter. On that note, I discovered the other day that he is a perfect age to start playing “I Spy”. He is pretty good at sounding out words and working out what the starting letter is. For our part, we stay away from words starting with consonant digraphs (sh, ch th, etc) or silent letters!
General Development:
Monsieur can get himself completely dressed and undressed now. He is becoming more and more independent, and talks about doing things “like you guys” – since his baby sister arrived he is definitely lining himself up with the grown-ups more. Although he has commented that he’s glad that he’s not a grown-up because he gets to eat his dinner hot and doesn’t have to change nappies! Astute!
Favourites: He has developed a love for Beanie Boos – a soft toy collection which are popular amongst his peers. They are pretty cute, I must admit. He still loves trains, although has not been playing with them this past month. R also commented that the train expo in March this year didn’t seem to captivate Monsieur in quite the same way it has in previous year. Maybe we are coming to the end of the train obsession. Or maybe he has just been so occupied with all the new toys and activities given to him as various birthday presents, and we’re about to head back to the frequent train track building.
We borrowed some Magnatiles (magnetic building tiles) from the toy library which have been a huge hit with him. It is exciting to see him constructing and creating with them. He is also getting into Lego more, and starting to just pull out his Lego boxes and make things.
He enjoys listening to audio books and podcasts in the car, specifically one podcast made for children called “Sparkle Stories”. Until recently we have just had short audio books in the car, books by Julia Donaldson, “Hairy McClary” and “Grug”, but I borrowed “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” from the library and he has been listening to that for the past two weeks.
He loves to read. On the weekends he is usually the first one up and will happily settle himself in the hallway for some reading whilst he waits for us to wake up.
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He loves our cat, Shakti; he alternates between wishing she was his cat and just calling her his cat! He adores cats and often pretends to be a kitten. He had a kitten party for his birthday.
Other creatures he pretends to be include: Pinkachu the pokemon (we know that it is Pikachu, but he is convinced that it is Pinkachu!), Kikki the cat, Sparkles the kitten, Fantasia the unicorn. We have to remember which one he is and call him by the correct name. He has such a vivid imagination.
