Friday 26 March 2010

Update...

So thought I'd share a little bit of Shoshone's progress. She's been doing baby sign language for a while now, her first sign was milk (imagine a milking a cow action), followed by drink ("fancy a cuppa" action) and also sleep/bedtime (classic prayer like hands at the side of your face). The bedtime one was particularly impressive as I hadn't signed it to her for quite some time and then she suprised me with it by using it to tell me that her teddy bear was sleeping!!! Could not belive it, she did it a few times before I really belived she was actually signing about her toy... Wiyot used to do a few signs, but never like that!

Anyway, not long after she learned the sign for more (one hand taps the back of the other) as well as eat (kind of pretending you're holding a sandwich and putting it to your mouth) but usually she just does the more sign. The latest one she has done is our own sign for "all gone." All the others are based on British Sign Language, however when Wiyot was a baby he developed his own sign for all gone and it's just stuck. Our "all gone" is like turning your palms upwards, the way you show someone you have nothing in your hands... Here's a pic of Shoshone demonstrating... think it was the first day she signed it :-)


All the junk behind her is some of our home education stash, lol

Last week she started pulling herself up on the furniture, and is now crusing along, very slowly. Also caught her climbing the bottom step (time to get the second stair gate out!!) and trying to get onto the sofa, funny girl! Only problem is she loves to pull herself up, but hasn't quite got the hang of getting down :-S She just stands there fussing and shouting till I go to help her out... I've tried showing her how to do it by moving her legs or letting her drop slowly to a sitting possition, Wiyot has repeatedly demonstrated for her, but she still hasn't quite got it. Oh well, soon I hope!!

Wiyot's now read two books, both Ruth Miskin one's but we've kind of tailed off for the time being... Really bad I know, cos he'll probably forget some of what he's learned...

My problem is I struggle to find the time to do things! I don't know how other mom's do it, doing all the home ed stuff, as well as the general home owner stuff, plus anything else that they are interested in (ie I'm a crafter and am attempting to sort out the garden...). At the moment all my time seems to be taken up with just the basics. Food, cleaning, changing nappies, tidying, washing and when it's not raining while Shone naps we go into the garden...

Blah, blah, blah... getting off subject!!

Any way thought I'd share some of Wiyot's arty creations. Here's some paintings we did a few weeks ago.

The bottom two are mine, the rest Wiyots. His bumble bee in the top right was really cute, I cut the face off in this pic, I'll have to take another one.. It was going really well, nice and pretty, but he gets all carried away with the story behind the pictures he's drawing and they tend to end up looking like scribbles... With the bumble bee he decided it was raining, you can see the big fat rain drops coming down, lol.

Guess what this one is, I was so please when he told me what it was I had a little tear of joy :_)



Mickey Mouse!!! Wicked!! The pink one is to do with another pic he was doing... His Nanna getting an X-ray (she broke her arm a few months ago and Wiyot still talks about it!), the pink dude is the Doctor.

If you got the last one, bet you wont get this one... (the yellow one)


It's Walle (from the Disney Pixar movie). Bellow Walle is Wiyot, Zurg (from Toy Story) and Daddy... I know there's a bit of a theme here... bet you couldn't tell we're Disney fans!! Walle was the first toy Wiyot bonded with and we took him to see the movie at the cinema for his birthday :-) He took the toy everywhere with him, until his head fell off... I sewed it back on, but I guess it lost it's shine after that. I can still see his sad face when he came to show me headless Walle :_(

Now for something a little different...

This one blew me away, I was cleaning the bathroom at the time and had to run to get the camera to capture this creation...


Mommy, "ooOOoo that's a nice castle!"
Wiyot, "No, it's the Great Sphinx!"

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OMG, and I can totaly see it too, lol, brilliant :-D

So you might think we've moved on from Disney, but you'd be wrong... He learnt about the great sphinx from Little Einsteins on Playhouse Disney! lol.

Hmmm, that's all for now, just wanted to share these with you :-)

Tuesday 9 March 2010

Not been doing much lately...

I have a tendency to take on so many projects that I can't possibly keep up with them all...

For the last few years I've had the desire to grow my own veg in the back garden. So as well as all my other ongoing projects I've finally made a start on this one. Think I might start another blog about my adventure... Anyway, think it will provide some good projects for Wiyot and Shoshone. Plus it will, hopefully give them more of an idea where food actually comes from.

As for the HE, Wiyot read his first book last week and did so with no trouble at all. He's also been busy painting and drawing and constructing various things with Stickle Bricks and Duplo. He's also suddenly become very independent and wants to do everything by himself. Getting dressed, brushing his teeth, helping me with the laundry, washing up the dinner plates, etc. don't know whether it's all come from a couple of the Montessori techniques that I did with him? He's been learning Cantonese with his Dad too :-)

Gotta go now, when I get chance I'll blog about the books I bought for him, as well as the Montessori one I got from the library.