Sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs bite

Our days are finished with E.'s evening routine:

1. watching a little bit of videos
2. taking a bath
3. putting on the jammies
4. drinking milk + reading out a fairy tale (or two)
5. talking to the angels
6. falling asleep

Most of the evening routine is done in Hungarian. This is Daddy's favourite time spent with E. that I would not like to take away from them. On the other hand I don't want E. to miss the English vocabulary of the evening routine. Not to mention the fact that reading bedtime stories only in Hungarian is a heartbreak for me. So every now and then (like 2-3 times a week) I try to convince my husband to turn into English. And it works brilliantly.

Let's see the programme step by step (the ideal version):

18:45 - watching videos: D. sits down in front of the computer to watch some English videos with E: (the usual collection of E.'s youtube videos, or this idiotic Meow, Meow song in the Tamil language:

Don't ask me why they watch it. One guess is E. LOVES it, the other is this is the way my husband rebels against the English evening routine - just kidding ;)

In the meantime I do some things around the house, preparation for the feeding, E.'s room, jammies etc.

If I happen to sit down in front of the computer with E., I prefer to watch a Peppa pig episode or The Going To Bed Book by Sandra Boynton or one of E.'s favourite song Twinkle Twinkle Little Star with the owl:




19:00 - taking the bath: E. sits in the bath and the sea creatures are jumping in one by one - the crocodile, the starfish, the octopus, the whale, the turtle, and then an extra duck, some measuring spoons of different colours, sometimes a filter and more bottle caps. So she can hardly move in the water.

We usually name the animals, sometimes we attack her with the animals, and spay her with water, of course, while we comment the happenings in English. But mostly we follow what she wants to do.

Sometime she asks for her plastic book - one is a biblical story of the lost lamb, the other is Vizipók and his friends. I tell her the Lost Lamb story in English, we talk about the pictures, and at the end I ask her to show me the shepherd, the lamb or other things in the pictures. But I'm in trouble with Vizipók as I don't know the names in English or they sound really silly (Ormányosbogár = Snout Beetle, Keresztespók= Garden Spider) so I rather hide this booklet when we have a bath in English.

Another favourite is Mommy Duck and her ducklings. Mommy Duck can carry 3 little ducklings on her back. When we play with the ducks Mommy Duck is swimming around E. and when the ducks are behind her one of the ducklings is taken off Mommy Duck's back (by D.). In the meantime we sing 5 Little Ducks (well, three in this version). E. is so cute as she is trying to turn back to see how the ducklings disappear, but usually she is not quick enough.

Another activity is toothbrushing. E. asks for her toothbrush, then she brushes the crocodiles teeth while we are singing This is the way we brush our teeth. She also wishes to brush Daddy's teeth or mine. Every now and then she brushes her own teeth as well. If she is not in the mood, I do it for her, which she doesn't really like.

When we are finished in the bath we say good bye to the toys. E. hands me the toys one by one and we say good night to them. If I tell her to look behind because there is one more toy, she understands it perfectly and turns around the grab the object. While we are putting the toys away she is waving good-bye.

19:30 - getting dressed into pyjamas:


We usually play the changing table games I have already posted about. D. puts on E.'s jammies and sleeping bag. He usually sings some songs. I prepare her milk. E. turns off her light, only a bedside lamp is on. Then E. and I sit down in the rocking chair to drink her milk, and D. reads a story or two. If we read in English at the moment we are reading the book: How Mama Brought the Spring by Fran Manushkin. It's for kids around the age of 5, but E. adores the pictures in the book. Before E. finishes her milk, D. says good night to her and leaves the room. Then we turn off the light and talks to the angels. I say thank you for the nice day and recall the lovely happenings of our day. E. often repeats the words she can also say like, baby, happy, her name or grandparents' name, Daddy, Mommy etc. SO actually she thanks for everything that happens to her. Then I put her down into her bed (she says 'bed') and I give her dummy (she says 'dummy') and I give her a textile nappy and her doggy she always sleeps with. I kiss her goodnight and leave the room. Most of the time she falls asleep within 5-10 minutes. Sometimes she chats to herself a little. If it's an English evening she talks to herself in English.

So here are some expressions how to say good night:

• Sleep well
• Sweet dreams
• Nighty-night
• Good night, sleep tight, don't let the bedbugs bite (you can find the origin of this phrase here - quite interesting, worth reading the theories. The one I like the most is the rope idea.)

I say good night to everyone with this Beatles song:

Home-made tools for language practice I.- Flashcards

As a language teacher I used a lot of card activities with my students to explain, identify, show or play things with them. It worked even with adults, but it's a hit with kids. They are colourful, fun to look at, nice to chew them or fold them (well, at least from E.'s point of view).

You can find a lot of ready-made flashcards on the net, for example, here. You just print them and can start using them. You can also find videos showing flashcards. I found them rather disappointing. A lot of them have strange visuals, or they use the American variation of the word I wouldn't use. But the most horrible experience is when the words are pronounce by a machine. It's scary. Plus, I don't want to make E. sit in front of the computer a lot.

I decided to make my own cards; it's more personal in this way, and sometimes E. could see when I prepared them, and became even more interested. And we can take with us if we want.

Of course I've read a lot about the method which was developed by Glen Doman and his flashcards, but I found it too much pressure on me. So I took it easy :)

What I do is similar to the Doman technique, but maybe not so thorough. I make flashcards about the topics E. is interested in. And the way I show them to her is not so systematic and not so fast. I'm not changing the cards so often as we play a lot with them and it's not only about showing her the cards.

So here is an example. When she was 8 months old, I was just showing her the cards and say what she could see in the picture. Later, on I mooed when the cow turned up and also showed the MAKATON sign for the cow. Then when she was around 10-11 months old I started to add extra information as well ("The cow gives us milk" - and showed the picture, showed the signs for cow and milk). When E. became 1 year old we started to name the colours as well ("Look - the cow is white and brown. It gives us milk" - I showed the signs - What colour is the milk? - and I answered: - "White". Now, at the age of 14 months, E. answers "white" and she moos as soon as she hears the word "cow".)

Sometimes I tell her a story or connect the cards to something that happened to us, or anything connected to real life. She loves those cards the most which she experienced in her own life (E.g.: body parts are great as she can identify them on me or on herself, what's more, the cards make her interactive; she asks D. to show his belly button. Among the flowers she adores the dandelion clock as we blew a lot of them when they bloomed in the park, but there are the fruits she can touch and taste like a banana or an apple).


I started with animals. As we don't have a colour printer I found some colouring pages on the net and selected some basic (later some more) animals, printed them and coloured them myself. (Quite time-consuming). Luckily I got a laminator from D. for Christmas, so I glued the coloured animals on colour paper and laminated each. It was a great idea as at the beginning E. chewed, folded and threw them away, so they really needed to be tough. Different topics have different background colours.

Animals



I thought at that time I won't make other cards but animals since she wanted nothing else but animals. We made noises that the animals made, named their colours, stated what they like eating, where they live, or sang a song about them etc.
 

 

Then she got a basket of soft vegetables (from IKEA) and I was "forced" to make some vegetable cards. (We play matching games with the soft vegetables and the cards). The same thing happened when we bought the wooden fruit box.

 

Fruit and vegetables


While we were walking in the park I realised we needed some flower cards, too. I just haven't had the energy and willpower to make tree cards, but I will one day. The flower cards are more 'professional' as they are photos printed in colour.

Flowers

I don't want E. to learn reading yet, so I didn't bother making word cards connected to the pictures. Except for the flower cards. And the reason for it is that I have difficulty remembering the names of the flowers so it is also a learning process for me. The names are on the back. Sometimes she wants to look at the words, so I show her. But I'm NOT teaching her to read.

Then the body parts came influenced by the Helen Doron songs and rhymes. At the moment we are looking at them when E. is sitting on the potty, as we can point at different body parts when she is half naked (belly button is her favourite). After making the body part cards, the time came when a box was necessary for keeping the cards in one place (that is next to the potty most of the time). So long time ago I saw a pinterest post about how to make a box for kids out of a Vanish plastic bottle. I made it and the cards can fit in it well.

Body parts

I also made musical instruments, but she has just started to become interested in them. We are going to begin using them later on.

Musical instruments

Below you can see the present collection of our cards. They are far from being ready. I'm continuously making new cards to each group.
Certainly there are more groups to come (everyday objects, furniture, baby stuff, means of transport, rooms, playground toys, tools, kitchenware etc).

The collection

 

Let's sum up what to play with cards?

 

1. Show then and say the name of the thing in the card

 

2. Matching cards and toys (toy animals, toy fruit or real ones can work well too)

 

3. Grouping (body parts on the head or fruit and vegetables in 2 groups, or according to colours in case of flowers)

4. Story telling (E.g.: chose few animals and vegetables and flowers, and build a story around them - the rabbit eats the carrot and hops into the field to smell flowers where he meets his best friend, the mouse, who is running away from the cat, because the mouse tried to drink the cat's milk)

 

5. Link the cards with sign language

 

6. Face down (put out 3-4 cards facing down and the child can turn them one by one, then name/show/point at the thing on the card - sounds boring but E. loves this too)

 

7. Sing a song (I put out some cards, e.g.: the lamb, the ladybird and the spider - I sing a song about one of the animals - Incy Wincy Spider and either E. picks up the card I1m singing about or we act out the song; the same with The Ladybird song or Ba-Ba Black Sheep song)

 

8. Odd one out (I show 3 or 4 cards of the same kind, but one is different - 3 farm animals and a wild one, or 3 yellow flowers and one red etc. -  then I ask, for instance, "Is the pig a wild animal?" - "No, it's not a wild animal." "Is the horse a wild animal?" -"No, it's not a wild animal." "Is the cow a wild animal?" - "No, it's not a wild animal."-"Is the lion a wild animal?" - "Yes, it is!" So the pig, the horse and the cow are farm animals.)

 

There must be much more games to play, just let your (and your child's) imagination fly.

 



Potty training

Potty training gives us another chance to widen our vocabulary and we can make it fun (in English) for E. to sit on it.

Potty place

For her 1st birthday E. got a potty from I. Granny. I thought it was a little early to start, but as soon as she got hold of the potty, she sat on it swaying her legs with a wide smile on her face. So this was a sign she is open to sit on it at least. I assigned an area for the potty and made it into a fun place as you can see below.




I was lucky as after a few goes she peed and after a week she also pooped into the potty. But it takes time to sit and wait for the outcome, so while she is sitting on the potty I'm next to her and entertain her both in English and Hungarian, depending on which day or which time period we are in.

These toys and books can be played with when E. is sitting on the potty, so when she goes there to play, I put her on the potty. Then comes the potty song. The tune is the same as Twinkle, twinkle little star and the lyrics:

Tinkle, tinkle little tot,
Now you sit upon the pot

Any second you will see

Sprinkle, splash as you go pee

Tinkle, tinkle little tot,
Now you sit upon the pot

(I found it on baba-angol.hu, but I couldn't link it properly for some reasons)

While E. is sitting on the potty we are looking at the books. Sometimes she points at a picture and I say the name, but nowadays if I ask: "Where's the teddy?" or "What's this?" She can point or tell me the thing I'm pointing at.

The following words she can say from the books:

 

English:                                       

apple

pear

nana (banana)

tick-tock (clock)

teddy (plus showing the sign)

ant

baby

ye (yellow)

blue

teeth

head

bread

red

ack (black)

book (plus showing the sign)

duck

neigh (horse)

mun (monkey)

bib

tree

meow (cat)

coocoo (pigeon)

baa-baa (sheep)

dod (dog)

eat (plus showing the sign)

 

Hungarian:

eper



inni

még (shows her self-created sign)

ebből (picking which bottle she wants to drink from)

dinnye

apa

anya (said first on Father's Day - ironically)

Mana (our dog)

éni (én is - me too)

i-á (for the donkey)

légy (fly- her favourite animal)

hinta (and she starts swinging)

kicsi (said only once)

pá-pá (waving goodbye when we finish with the book)
bé (béka - frog)

She can point at several other pictures if I say their names. What we often play is that she chooses two or three pictures and she points at them one after the other and I say their names (or if it's an animal I give the sound they make). She enjoys it a lot and points at the different pics faster and faster, then laughs out loud.

 

Other activities:

 

When we have finished with the books, we can look at flash cards (I change the flash cards - 5 at a time - every third or fourth day). We have a lot of animal cards, as E. is crazy about them, but I also made some fruit, vegetable and flower cards too. I'm in the process of making body parts, musical instruments and colour cards since she is starting to be more and more interested in them.

Another great activity she loves playing is counting the clothes pegs. Actually, I saw the Helen Doron teacher using pegs during the lessons and E. liked it a lot. So I put five pegs of different colours in a plastic cup and we count them or I name the colours then E. repeats them. The same goes with the plastic bottle caps - in the name of recycling. Yellow is her favourite colour. It's hard to take it away from her when we have finished. When D. is playing with E. on the potty, he shakes all the five caps in his big hands, then spread them on his palms and E. has to point at the colour D. is saying. It's also quite enjoyable.

 

Potty toys

As you can see in the picture above, we have some musical instruments and a toy mobile phone, a FisherPrice Frog  which sings English songs if you push the flashing shape on his tummy and a peek-a-boo doggy. (The mobile and the frog are from a secondhand shop for half the price of the original) Well, I won't go into details in connection with them. Use your imagination. :)

 

You can put ANYTHING next to the potty to play with. These are just a few ideas. Our only rule is that she can play with these things when she is sitting on the potty (both in English and Hungarian). But, to be perfectly honest, she sits there happily even for 10-15 minutes if she is in the mood to play with these potty toys. Sometimes I can hardly make her leave the place.

 

And a little extra: I believe in rewards. So if we find something in the potty after getting up, E. gets a sticker (you can see the plastic box in the top right corner with a lot of stickers on). In fact, she gets one sticker for pee-pee and two for poopy. Now she can (or at least tries to) stick them on by herself.

 

The box is almost full of stickers :D I need to make another one from a 5-litre plastic bottle.

 



Bilingual créche and nursery

We visited Mini Klub Bilingual Crèche and Nursery in Budapest, 4th district. We have it in mind that it might do good to E. if she is among other kids. As we wouldn't like to decrease the amount of time spent on English, I checked what possibilities we have concerning a bilingual nursery. (I also checked the English-only nurseries but both they are far from us and their price range is high above what we can afford.)

Playground area

So I would like to share my experiences in connection with our visit.

D. took a day off and all three of us could go and visit the institution in the afternoon. The building itself is a detached house with its garden full of playground games (swings, seesaws, climbing castle, slide etc.). The gate is locked in order not to let in strangers and not to let out the kids. Kati néni opened the gate for us. She was very welcoming and kind. Inside we met one of the crèche nurses (her name I've forgotten). In the hall area you can take off your shoes. It's all colourful and nicely decorated. Even if it is the entrance full of shoes and coats, it's neat and well organised.

The crèche area (nursery for babies under 3) is separated from the nursery. There is a kitchen area where they prepare elevenses and afternoon snacks for the kids, or heat up the food they order for lunch. There are 2 playing rooms for the little ones (i.e. there are two groups), maximum 8 babies in each. The youngest child now is one year old (just like E.) as the nurse told us. The playroom is full of colourful toys (everything had been put back on the shelves and into cupboards as it was after 15:30 and all the babies had been take home already). E. started to cruise along the furniture and pack down the toys. She had a wide smile on her face. She felt comfortable immediately. And we, parents as well. We asked our questions and got very impressive and informative answers. Here are some of them which I found important to know:

• every group has 2 nurses: one Hungarian-speaking, one English-speaking (still the latter is Hungarian nationality)
• the English-speaking nurse communicates in English with the kids all day (food time, preparation for sleeping, potty training, activities etc.)
• every day different skills are in focus (visual, musical, movement etc.) in both languages
• English activities are in the afternoon (short ones in the crèche and longer sessions in the nursery) with a teacher who is specialised in kid's English
• there's a native nurse in the nursery - the natives are there for 6-week periods - they are kind of trainee nurses (at the moment they have one from Australia) and spend time both with the little ones and the older kids too
• they close only for 2 weeks in the summer

Of course, we were talking about food, and food time, sleeping time, arrival and departure, play time, potty training etc, but concerning the language development I found the information above  the most essential. You can find more information about other details on their homepage, or you can visit the after contacting the director via email.

We look around in the other playroom, checked what beds they use, we also saw the little toilets (which were very clean and the kids' stuff in nice order). Then we had a look at the playground, and much to my surprise, the native nurse, who was sitting by the side of the sandpit where a little boy was playing, didn't say a word to him. On the other hand, 2 little girls (4-5 years old) were playing in English, though there were no English speaking adults around them.

Our overall impression was great. They reacted at our enquiries very quickly, the staff are young, energetic and kind, with some elderly members - as the warm-hearted Granny substitutes. The atmosphere is cosy and relaxed, there is order and organised system. The English language is also in focus all day (though I can't say it for 100% sure, only after E. has started going there). There are lot of other activities one can choose from (see also their homepage). Last but not least, their monthly fee is reasonable (basic price: 55 000 HUF/ month and 700 HUF/day for food plus extra activities - optional).

What we have decided to do is to wait one more year and from 2014 September E. will attend the crèche, first, one or two days a week, then slowly more. Then I'll come back to this topic and share our experiences.