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.

 



Helen Doron Baby Days

We took part in the so-called baby days at Helen Doron Language School. During the summer holidays (in July and August) a one-week intensive course (in both months) is organised by the school not to waste the whole summer.

This month we participated in the first 3 days only, as our native nanny comes twice a week now (Thursday and Friday mornings). I wouldn't like to miss her. The baby days are different from the usual course. The days are organised around a topic or more (because of the revision). There were two moms and their little ones from our group and 5 ohter kids (aged about 1,5-2). The 9-o'clock start was a little rough but we made it.

First day:

The colours and shapes were introduced (or for the bigger kids), practised during the lesson. So all the toys and games were played focusing on the basic colours: red, blue, green, yellow, white, and much to my surprise, purple and orange.
There were colourful flags, a new colour song (Colours for everyone) and of course, the old songs as well (Waving song, Uppety song just to mention one or two). The colourful balls also came out of the box, much to E.'s delight, not to mention the building blocks (together with the Stacking song), though E. can't really build yet, but destroy.

I would like to emphasise one of the activities that E. liked the most and I'm planning to make it for her. Matching colours activity: pieces of coloured paper are cut, laminated and a piece of velcro is stuck on the back. Kids need to stick the right colours to their places on a sheet of paper where the colours are signed. I'll attach a photo to the home-made tools post as soon as I made it.

Second day:

The colours and shapes were revised a little bit (the best game was colouring shapes with baby paint or crayons - see the picture above - that we could take home) and then means of transport were introduced: cars, trucks, buses, tractors, airplanes, wagon, bicycle (I didn't really understand why we didn't use bike instead of bicycle or plane instead of airplane)
Again there were a lot of moving around (with paper plates that have cars, trucks or buses on them - we were imitating driving them)

Third day:

D. took E. to the lesson where, apart from the previous days revisions (shapes, colours, transport), there were some coloured paper planes to fly through a ring and numbers were covered as well (counting pegs etc.) . There was a new song: Elephant song also connected to counting up to 5. Alas, D. could not remember all the details of the lesson, so that's all I know about it.


All in all, these three days were fun, the only drawback was that we were too many (8 moms with 8  kids). However, I think we are going to pay for the next session in August, too.