Helen Doron Baby Days II.

August 1, 2013, 5:00 am

≫ Next: Home-made tools for language practice - Peek-a-boo house

August has arrived so we have taken part in another few days at our Helen Doron Language School. Here is the summary of our 3 sessions:

Day1: Fruits

I was really happy as this is one of E.'s favourite topics. Her eyes sparkled when she saw a picture of an apple and a straberry in the teacher's hand. She looked at me and glowed with delight. I felt she knew the whole session will be about fruits. So I wasn't surprised at all when in the middle of the lesson she was brave enough to say apple, pear and nana (for banana). She says strawberry in Hungarian (she always chooses the easier word of the two languages - very smart). The activities we had:

matching half fruit

matching fruit with their shapes

sticking fruit on a big tree

taking plastic fruits out of a pelican's beak then put them back

turning flashcards facing down

fruit song ( I like bananas...)

And of course the usual revisions, like the Uppety song or the Waving song.

E. is waving to Rosie, the doll (on the 3rd day)

The teacher in me would have included the colours a little bit.

I was taken aback when the picture of an avocado came up. Well, we live in a different eating culture here in Hungary.

However, the main point is E. enjoyed herself a lot. I haven't seen her this active yet. And the number of mums and kids was better than at the beginning of July (6 mums with 6 kids - too many).

Day2: Animals

E. wasn't in a good mood today. We had a rough night and she was clinging to me all day. It was the same at the lesson. She was much less active, which was a pitty. As I could see the other kids were a little bit less patient than they usually are. But again E. said quite a few animal names and the sounds they make, too. (hippo, doggy, miaow, hee-haw)

I liked the 'Abracadabra' game. It was about showing 3 animal pictures and the same animals in soft toys. Then the teacher covered the toys with a blanket and made one of the animals disappear as she lifted the blanket up. Then she asked which animal was missing and made the kids match the soft toys and the animal pictures. It could draw and keep children's attention.

We also listened to some real animal sounds and had to find the picture of the animal we could hear. It was also good fun, though there was some technical glitch, which also happened when we were listening to the animal sound song.

Another great activity was a bowl of water with plastic animals in it. I was scared to see the bowl full of water but nobody got wet, luckily, and the kids took great pleasure in splashing a bit in water. (Not to mention how refreshing it was in this heat). It is also a nice activity from sensory point of view. One of the reasons why I like the Helen Doron Early English is the wonderful combination of several kind of development involved at the lessons.

We also revised a little bit of the fruits (matching Velcro-ed fruit with their shape and matching one type of fruit with two of its kind with a marker on a white board - E. was interested in the latter as we started to do a little bit of drawing together).

Fruit activity - sorry, taken with a mobile

After that the kids chose a toy animal from a big bag (E. said: 'choseone' as if it were one word) they had to lift it up and put it down, then turn it round while we were listening to the Uppety song.

All in all, it was a good day with plenty of varied activities, nice hand puppets, real-life animal sounds, some sensory game and great deal of moving around. I just wish E.'d had a better mood.
We finished on time and we could get home to our weekly Mums' English Club.

Day 3: Actions

This day was all about moving around. It was lovely, though towards the end the kids got a little carried away. But let's start with the beginning.

The group shrank a little, there were only 4 mums with their kids. We were banging drums, the door, the chair (E. sometimes hit her head a bit) with the drumsticks.

E. is picking drumsticks for banging

The children were swinging in a blanket one by one, walking around slowly and quickly, turning around, clapping hands, touching face, stacking building blocks, pouring water, and most important of all, blowingbubbles among others. What else would a little explorer wish to do? All the activities were engaging and great fun for the kids. This time I managed to take some nicer photos. Have a look. The pics speak for themselves.

Pouring water from a cup to a bowl

"Stacking, stacking, stacking it up"

I'll try it

The lesson fell apart a bit by the lesson. One child was eating, the other one was whining (wanted more bubbles), the third one was taking the pictures off the wall, instead of indulging themselves in the Waving song - Whatever! It was a great day. They all got really excited because there were a lot impulses.

Every time I am amazed how brave E. is to say English words, more and more every day. She likes taking part in these sessions. She said purple, bubble, water, more, try it and shouted in the middle of the lesson: ORANGE ORANGE ORANGE. This must be the sign of her being entertained and feeling relaxed :) Well, I've already reached my main aim, then.

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Home-made tools for language practice - Peek-a-boo house

August 2, 2013, 4:34 am

≫ Next: Home-made tools for language practice - matching colours

≪ Previous: Helen Doron Baby Days II.

This idea came from the "lift-the-flap" books, like Spot goes to the farm by Eric Hill. E. likes peeping to see what's behind a door, a bush or a gate. Also, I saw this technique to be used at the Helen Doron lesson to practice new/old vocabulary. So why not make my own?

The basis is cardboard and I decorated it with orange and green paper, as well as red and yellow craft foam sheets ("dekorgumi"). The door and windows are laminated and glued on the surface. The sky is made from coloured paper and the green grass is painted.

(E. has already torn the clouds partly, so I strengthen them with Cellotape). I hide animals, people, babies, pieces of furniture etc. behind the flaps. Whatever works.

It's a good idea to stick the house on the floor or on the wall as while the kids are fidgeting with it, it moves a lot and makes it more difficult to open the flaps and easier to tear off a window.

E.'s favourites are the sun and the butterfly. She picks them and walks around with them in her hands. When I changed the pictures she was surprised at the change. Now she's found the box of pictures and not surpised any more. She tries to change the pictures herself.

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Home-made tools for language practice - matching colours

August 3, 2013, 3:41 am

≫ Next: More and more words

≪ Previous: Home-made tools for language practice - Peek-a-boo house

E. LOVES colours and all the games in connection with colours. One of her first words was a colour (red in English, kék in Hungarian). So I though I should make some fun activities with the colours. Here is one of them:

I drew circles and coloured them on two white sheets. Just to be on the safe side, I laminated them to make them more durable. On one sheet there are the basic colours: red, blue, green black and white. On the other one: brown, pink, orange, yellow and purple.

From the kitchen I picked some bottle caps, lids of different colours, but I didn't have black and orange so I took off an orange and a black magnet from the fridge.

I put all the caps, magnet and lids into a box and put it in the living room. E. went there and took it off immediately. Without me showing her what to do, she started to match the colours. She can concentrate on it for few minutes only, but she always says out loud the name of the colours. Most of the time she uses one language, either English or Hungarian. Only very rarely does she mix them.
Sometimes I pick the caps from the box and she shows me where to put them.

We never get to the end of the matching, though. Either she gets tired of it, or runs away with the two favourites: yellow and purple. :)

↧

More and more words

August 27, 2013, 12:56 pm

≫ Next: New flashcards - flags

≪ Previous: Home-made tools for language practice - matching colours

Just a short post on how our language development is going. E. is 15,5 months old and about a few weeks ago I stopped counting how many English and Hungarian words she knows.
Now here are some random interesting features of her language knowledge:

English:

she knows all the main colours (in both languages)
loves saying 3 (or more) -syllable words (aubergine, apricot, butterfly)
started to say combination of words (green peas, red rose, purple plum, yellow balloon)
she says what she really wants in both languages (more-még, drink-inni, bread-kenyér etc.)
her functional language is outstanding - she says thank you, Mommy - when she gives something back to me or when I give her something, here you are (not clearly though - it sound like: heeyaa), please - when she asks for something, don't like it - if she doesn't want to eat something
sometimes she sounds like saying a sentence that she doesn't do in Hungarian (it's incomprehensible, though)
when she points at a spider she says: incywincy
potty time is mostly in English so she rather says poopy and peepee
prefers songs in English

Favourite songs now:

loves to watch/sing/chant the English alphabet

E. likes certain books in English, though I "read" most books in both languages

Still, her favourite is Fran Manushkin: How Mamma Brought the Spring

But she also takes pleasure in Great Day for Up! by Dr. Seuss and Goodnight, Spot by Eric Hill nowadays.

Hungarian:

she is trying to say long words (more than 4 syllables) - palacsinta
prefers the countries in this language (her favoutite one to say is Svájc, and her favourite flag is the Belgian - because of the black in it -, though she cannot pronounce it clearly)

when she sees the Turkish flag she starts to chant: pont, pont vesszőcske, készen van a fejecske, kicsi nyaka, nagy a hasa, készen van a TÖRÖK basa - her utterence is 50% right, but the intonation is perfect
prefers rhymes in Hungarian (Boci, boci tarka, A török és a tehenek)
she says tetszik if she likes something or someone (doesn't say it in English)

Some cute details:

her favourite animal is the penguin at the moment
out of nowhere she calls out native nanny's name
her favourite colour is black, though she says pink or purple
her favourite body part is her belly button (when she has a look at her own, she makes us show ours)
her favourite flower is carnation
she claps after pooping
she loves drawing (onto the parquet, at the playground, on sheets of paper, on the door - but not on the wall yet)
she pronounces Peppa Pig as if she were a native British little girl :)

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New flashcards - flags

August 28, 2013, 12:27 pm

≫ Next: "Amimals" - in zoos

≪ Previous: More and more words

I have created another pack of flashcards: the European flags. The pack is not full yet, but quite a lot is done. First, I just wanted to check if E. is interested in them or not. As they are very colourful, she loved them at first sight.

I tried to concentrate on countries which are neighbouring countries of Hungary, or I have some information about, or we have already been to etc. I, myself, coloured them AGAIN. (I hope baby Jesus will bring me a colour printer for Christmas). To make the flashcards more durable I laminated them (that was the easier part).

Activities you can do with flags:

just have a look and say the name of the country
name the colours on the flag
say if the stripes are vertical or horizontal (E. loves long words)
tell your child the capital
talk about the country if you know it (in our case for instance: Ireland, Mommy lived there for a year a long time ago, the U.K. - this is where A. (our native nanny) comes from, Turkey - this is where Mommy and Daddy were on their honeymoon, Hungary - we live in Hungary etc.
show two flags and ask: which one is ... ? and your child can pick the right one (E. likes this activity not only with cards, but also with soft toys, building blocks, flowers or coloured pencils.... whatever)
turn down three cards and let your child turn them up one by one, then say the name of the country (and the capital or the colours - combination of 1.-2.-4.)
spread all the cards on the floor and tell your child to choose his or her favourite one (maximum three - E. would give me all the cards :) )
pick the flags with the same colours and group them (red-white: Switzerland, Poland and Austria, blue-white-red: the Czech Republic, France, the Netherlands, Russia, Croatia, Slovakia, Slovenia, red-white-green: Italy, Hungary, Bulgaria, black-yellow-red: Germany, Belgium)
if you make 2 sets you can play a memory game (I had neither time, nor energy to make two sets)

More flags are on the way:

I want to make England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland
I cannot leave out the USA and Australia as they are among the most important English speaking countries
Countries of Asia, Africa and South America are coming too

I wish a day would be about 36-38 hours long...

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"Amimals" - in zoos

September 9, 2013, 1:07 pm

≫ Next: Over 100 words

≪ Previous: New flashcards - flags

Going to the zoo was always my favourite activity as a child (still love it today) so I could hardly wait for E. to get at least a little bit interested. And the time has come.

Our first time to the Budapest zoo was when she was 6 months old. It was more fun for me than for her. She had a look at the camels (and smiled when saw them pee) and the farmyard and then fell asleep. She only woke up for nursing (which I managed in the disabled loo) then went back to sleep again.

But now as she is over 1 (15 months old more precisely) she takes pleasure in walking around and looking at animals.

Visiting relatives in Debrecen gave us the sudden idea to visit the zoo there. It was actually a great idea. We all loved it. We were already in the zoo for half an hour (saw some parrots, giraffes and monkeys) when I realised what a good occasion would this be to use English (our Hungarian relatives didn't accompany us). So we just sang our song to signal the change in using languages and continued our animal adventure in English.

As we were walking around, we described everything to her in English (and as usual she was repeating everything like a parrot):

what animals we saw (turtles, a hippo, penguins - her favourites, more monkeys, laughing doves, roosters and hens, camels, goats, ostriches and lions)
what they looked like ("Look, the camel has two big humps"; "Wow, this rooster has a huge red comb on his head")
what sounds they gave (roar, squeak, cock-a-doodle-do, coo-coo etc.)
what the animals were served for dinner (fruits, vegetables, mouse, rabbit etc.)

"Pat, pat - rabbit"

At the end of our visit we found a wooden playground where there were a lot of animals. E.'s favourite was the caterpillar. She climbed on it and rode it for about 15 minutes. We also counted and named the caterpillar's legs, eyes, mouth and antennae.

Our second English tour in the zoo was in Budapest with our native nanny, A.
I learnt some new animal names (e.g.:cassowary) and we had a wonderful day with a lot of English (I tried to stay in the background and let A. and E. interact with each other a lot). The photos speak for themselves.

E.'s favourite place was the Butterfly House, where we could see how butterflies come out of their pupa, and of course, there were plenty of different types of butterflies flying around, eating oranges or just resting on the plants. We had to go back once again before leaving the zoo. E. was running around and one could see on her little face how amazed she was. Her favourite animals are butterflies at the moment.

Morpho peleides butterfly - blue on the inside

E.'s pointing at the butterfly she liked the most, saying: "orange"

After the zoo experience I found a nice page where the metamorphosis of a butterfly can be seen quite nicely. So I printed it and E."coloured" it :) with my help.

We also watched the seal show at 11 o'clock. A big crowd gathered to see the seals but everything was explained in Hungarian only. (Sorry A., I didn't interpret it at all :( )

E. was fascinated by the ball (and not the seal...)

Baby Giraffe

E. was sleeping when we went to see the Neanderthals. It's a relatively new exhibition of a (wax) neanderthal family. This little boy with the cave drawing was my favourite.

After E. woke up we had some lunch (vegetable dish for E. and sandwiches for A. and myself - I wish E. hadn't said "people" for the first time while I put a spoonful of her dish into her mouth)

Flamingoes

We also went to see the baby elephant, but E. was more interested in a turtle shell:

Another favourite place was the traditional Hungarian farmyard. Rabbits were E.'s favourite. We had to return here as well for a second visit. E. was repeating the words like "rabbit", "hop", "carrot" and "apple" all the way through. E. had an incident with the foal, which wanted to her shoes.

All in all, we enjoyed ourselves to a great extent and will return to practise our English as well as having fun around "amimals" - as E. says.

↧

Over 100 words

September 18, 2013, 12:27 pm

≫ Next: What's the weather like?

≪ Previous: "Amimals" - in zoos

E. turned 16 months on Monday and I am not exaggerating if I say she can use much more than 100 words in each language (Hungarian and English).

The calculation was done by D. He added up all the functional language (thanking, asking, giving, objecting, greetings etc.) and words of different topics we've been dealing with (see the collection bellow) and the sum must be over 100 words, getting closer to 200.

Now I'm collecting the ones that E. uses confidently in the right context (and not just parroting them or not the ones she understands because in this case there are a thousand words, I guess). Of course, these words and expressions are not 100 % clear. (She tends to pronounce the "k" sound "p", the "g" sound "b" or the vowels sometimes melt into one another). Still, it's her great achievement.

Now I'm trying to focus on her English only:

Peek-a-boo

Functional language:

Thank you
Please
Pick it up
Here you are
There (if she wants to go somewhere)
Let's go
Come on
Bye-bye
Hi/Hello
Don't like it
Like it
Cheers (when drinking)
Up
Out (of the playpen or high chair)
not comfy (on the potty)
Oops (when something is fallen)
Oh, no! (when something goes wrong)
Peek-a-boo (when she hides behind the curtain)

Family members:

mommy
daddy
granny
papa (for grandpa)
baby
+ names of our family members (7 people), our native nanny (A.) and my best friend (B.)

Animals: (if she doesn't know the name of the animal she says the sounds they make)

doggie
Our poor mixed-breed
froggie
cat/kitty
cow
sheep
kangaroo
hippo
bear
mouse
rat
panda
butterfly
ladybird
bee
pig
duck
ant
turtle
whale
dino

Fruit:

Window pictures

apple
pear
grapes (a bunch of grapes)
banana
kiwi
orange
plum
lemon
cherries
strawberries
apricot
peach
tomato
berry

Vegetable:

aubergine
onion
potato
broccoli
mushroom
pumpkin

Other foods:

water

cheese
bread
salami
sausage
honey
water
milk
mayonnaise
ketchup
butter
yogurt
coffee
ice creme
ricecake

Flowers:

peony
lilac
begonia
pansy
daisy

Flag of Portugal - E.'s favourite right now

Countries/Flags/:

Norway
Belgium
Portugal
Hungary
the European Union
Turkey
Italy

Colours: (the clearest utterances)

red
orange
yellow
green
blue
purple
pink
black
white
grey

Bubbles

brown

Shapes:

oval
triangle
heart
star
pentagon
rectangle

Everyday object/Toys:

spoon
plate
knife
fork
bottle
kitchen
teddy
book
playground
sandpit
bath
colour pencil
drawing star
crayon
paper
drawing
nappy
creme
toothbrush
man (a plastic figurine)
clock
high chair
door
playpen
Sandpit
video
dummy
potty
poopy
pee pee
peg
mill
car
choo-choo train
ball
puddle
big
bubbles
bin
balloon
sun
cloud

Hat and jeans

Clothes:

jacket
slippers
hat
trousers
jeans
shoes
cardigan
boots
pyjamas
socks

Body parts:

head
pinkie
nose
ear
knee
mouth
toe
eyes

Musical instruments: (she's not so intereted in this topic although she is quite musical)

drum
piano

Breeds of dog: (I introduced some dog flashcards 3 days ago)

Westie
Shar-pei
bulldog
puli
mixed breed

E. is making up more and more combinations, like big puddle, red pinkie (for polished fingernails), purple plum, pencil drawing, banana yogurt, black doggie etc.

If it goes like this, in two more months she'll say sentences. She's amazing, a little genius. Am I proud? Hard to say how much :)

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What's the weather like?

October 17, 2013, 11:46 am

≫ Next: More flashcards - clothes, dogs, birds and more

≪ Previous: Over 100 words

The weather is getting more and more changeable. So here is how we deal with it.

I found some really inspirational ideas on this blog about displaying what the weather is like in a child's room. So I've made it myself too, but I'll do the date and days later on, introducing them gradually, just like the feelings.

In the mornings we look out of the window (She points at the window and says "window") and look at the sky. I tell her if it's sunny or cloudy, rainy or windy.

First, I drew some of the weather features on the window pane with special Crayola Window Crayons On the other window we have some other pictures: a butterfly, some fruits and bugs etc. E. loves to look at these as well, so I don't want to wipe them.

To make the weather display a little bit more interactive, I made this:

I printed the weather pictures from this blog and laminated them.

After that I glued them on special magnet sheets that can be cut (and one side is sticky).

We had this old and rusty steel tray (lucky I didn't throw it away) and its back served as the display surface. (With two sided sticky tape I fixed it on the wall.)

I put green and yellow stripy electrical tape on the sides because of the rusty edge. I placed the weather board in the living room next to E.'s toy boxes and books. I wrote: Today it's ... and E. is ... with a permanent marker.

Location

Every morning after looking out of the window and checking the weather ("It's rainy today" or "It's sunny, but there are some clouds in the sky","Look at the trees, it's very windy today" etc.) we go to the display and E. puts on the weather signs and how she feels (mostly happy). She needs time to understand the concept of changing weather and feelings (I have more heads showing feeling I'll add them gradually)

First, she put all the magnets everywhere, but the time will come when she can do it on her own without my help.

When we have time and the weather changes we go back to the display and add or change something if it's necessary. She enjoys it a lot. Whatever involves magnets, she is into it.

Final result

Days and the date are coming soon.

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More flashcards - clothes, dogs, birds and more

October 26, 2013, 12:07 pm

≫ Next: At night

≪ Previous: What's the weather like?

I coloured the clothes flashcards, but that was the end. I'm not going to colour more cards... I've had enough. So I asked D. to have them printed on the way home from work. And here they are!
I just needed to laminate and cut them up. It was easy-peasy. What's more, they look more professional ;)

So here are some ideas what to do with the clothes cards:

just show them one by one saying their name
show the real items and match them with the card (once I lay down and E. put the clothes cards -the items I was wearing- on me. It was a little chill-out time for me :) this is why I have no picture of this activity)
group them according colour, sex or where we put them on (upper-body/lower-body, feet etc.)
put together matching outfits: white and red hat, red jumper, blue jeans and red boots or orange blouse, yellow skirt and brown sandals (she got some weird combinations too: bra, slippers, tights).
select the ones you can wear in the swimming pool, or what daddy wears at work, what we wear when it rains etc. - kind of situational usage of clothing

I was fed up saying "It's a doggy" while we were walking in the street and saw different breeds of dogs. It must be strange for a child to see a Westie and a Bernese Mountain dog and hear that Mommy calls both of them a dog.

And what we do with the doggie cards:

just show them one by one and say their names
identify the size, colour and length of their fur
group them according to colour, having a tail or not, met them in our area or not
give them dog names (we have the picture of our dog, M. and at Grandma's place she's got a plush dog called Bobby, and a sleeping toy called Morzsi, so after naming all the dogs we know we give the other dogs different names. We've got a lot of Bobbies, some Georges - after Peppa Pig's brother etc.)
pat and stroke (E. picks few dogs and pat them or stroke them, nowadays she started to kiss everybody and everything, so the dogs cannot miss her kisses)

Bird cards: - we haven't used them, but I plan the following activities:

just show them one by one saying their name
identify the colours on them
listen to the sounds they make on youtube (I put together a playlist on youtube with the sounds of the birds - She loved the sound of jays so much she laughed out loud)

Bird cards in autumn light

Household appliances:

I cannot add anything new to the activities we do with these cards. Sometimes E. takes the washing machine card to our washing machine and throws it inside. :)

Insects:

The 'nice', not too disgusting insects

I have made some more cards in the topics we already had as well as new ones. E. loves them but gets bored of them quickly (she knows all the dogs and clothes already...) so we have baby objects, furniture, vehicles and famous building flashcards too. If I have time I'll take photos of them too. However, we do the same things with them. And there are more to come: tools, kitchen utensils, geographical features, famous people, paintings - just to mention some which are on my mind.

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At night

November 18, 2013, 12:18 pm

≫ Next: Merry Christmas

≪ Previous: More flashcards - clothes, dogs, birds and more

Teething is a hard period both for mommy and baby. Still, some sleepless nights are spent with a little English.

It started two months ago when E. first started to call me in English at night. Her tooth didn't let her sleep, so she cried out for Mommy: - Mommy, coming, E. get out.
When I went in I asked her in English what the problem was. She replied in English: - Drink.
So I gave her water. Then when she stopped drinking, said: - Enough. She also asked for her Doggie and nappy, which she always sleeps with, in English.

So after this experience, whenever she wakes up during the night and asks for me to go into her room I use the language (either Hungarian or English) she talks to me. (It's about 50-50%)

She's had some funny night comments since we "speak" in English during the night:

She is so heavy it is easier for me to hold her while we are sitting in the rocking chair. I was holding her once and she said: - Not comfy. Then I changed her position and she was satisfied.
Another night I was holding her but she wanted to get away from me, and when I asked her what she wanted, she pointed to the floor and said: - Dummy, there.
I was singing to her one night - English songs -, but when I wanted to sing something else she said: - No, no. Every time I wanted to sing something else she said no-no. So I had to sing two songs for half an hour:

Lavender's Blue

Stars shining (I couldn't attach the video but you can find it on youtube if you search for "Stars shining - a lullaby"

Mind you, I do not talk to her during the night if it is not necessary, but sometimes a little communication is important, and if we do not sleep at least we have a little language practice.

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Merry Christmas

December 23, 2013, 12:29 pm

≫ Next: Shapes, shapes, shapes - there are all sorts of shapes

≪ Previous: At night

I've been really busy lately: we've had some illneses and I started to learn Spanish, which kept me away from the blog. But next year I'll catch up. Promise... to myself mainly.

Of course, the last few months have been full of preparation for celebrations (Thanksgiving, Advent, birthdays, Santa Claus day - the Hungarian speciality - and Christmas). We had a lot of English usage in connection with these and in our everyday life too.

Santa arrived on 6th December

Shapes are in - a post will be comming soon on the topic.

Food shapes

We still take part in Helen Doron English sessions - some negative, some positve expereinces. Might share with you later, too.

E. is getting more and more interested in numbers (big numbers in the first place) and letters as well. I'll also write about how far we've got and what we are doing with letters and numbers.

Andvent calendar and its numbers

We've put a hold on flashcards as E. doesn't seem to be excited about them any more (sometimes we do a little revision), and as she speaks continuously and more or less fluently (3-6 word sentences) with a wide range of vocabulary, flashcards are pointless in introducing something new to her. (I have some ideas of car logos, starsigns and Christmas vocab, but she knows a lot about these things aready)

Baking gingerbread was one of the highlights of this season - the time when she learnt how to pose and say 'cheese' when someone takes a photo of her.

Is it going to be a Gingerbread man?

Thank you for following us, and giving your feedback.

I wish you and your family a very Happy Christmas and a successful New Year with a lot of second (or third) language.

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Shapes, shapes, shapes - there are all sorts of shapes

January 7, 2014, 12:43 pm

≫ Next: Our new timeable for 2014

≪ Previous: Merry Christmas

E. is into shapes to a great extent. About 2 months ago (when she was 16-17 months old) she already knew all the basic (and some not so basic) shape names. So it made me think what we can do to practise and play with the shapes in more varied ways.

When E. was quite small, around 6-8 months old, we watched and we've still been watching the following videos concerning shapes.

The Shape Song:

Shape Song 2:

Shape song: (I don't really fancy this one, but E. does)

We have some new favourites. While we are watching some of them she bursts out with laughter, like in case of the following:

The next video might seem very monotonous and boring but my daughter loves it and sometimes wants to watch it 4 or 5 times.

There are a lot more videos on shapes but I do not want to bore you. You can search for them on youtube.

E. got a shape cube for her first birthday, but she was totally untouched by it after taking a first look.

Birthday present with potentials

Mostly, I was playing with it and she was watching, or was just playing away next to me. When she was about 14-15 months old, she started to name the shapes out of the blue, much to my surprise.

We also use the shapes of the cube to match shapes in a little bit more different way. I took out a piece of paper and 9 shapes from the cube (I don't know why 9... it could have been 5, 7 or 10. It was a sudden idea.). With the help of a brown crayon I drew them around (E. was watching closely and tried to help a bit too :) )

Then I gave her the shapes and I didn't even have to tell her what to do. She started to put the shapes on the paper.

To initiate more talking I always asked what she was doing, what shape it was she was holding etc. Plus, she sometimes said the colour of the shape, too, all by herself.

Sometimes E. needs motivation to eat. At dinnertime I prepare some 'soldiers' and different shapes carved out of bread, ham, salmon or veggies. It is much more fun for her to eat a pentagon or a triangle than a slice of simple cucumber.

When she turned 16 months we found some books in the library on shapes. This picture dictionary contains two pages of colourful shapes (solids too).

Before taking the book back to the library I had these (and some more pages) photocopied and used the shapes to make flashcards as well.

And a famous favourite (alas, we've got it in Hungarian in the library but this unfortunate fact does not keep me back to use it for other language purposes):

Another Hungarian one: Kun Fruzsina: Formák

Stars

Last but not least a Baby Einstein book on shapes:

There are tons of books on amazon.com all about shapes. No matter which book you use, but it is another fun way to talk about shapes and see them in different contexts.

Baby's Best Start (Helen Doron beginner baby course 3rd CD) has a song about shapes. We listen to it twice a day and E. knows it by heart. Also the book contains pages of shapes and objects of a similar kind (circle-sun, triangle-sail, square-book).

Often E. identifies shapes by herself. On the table cloth of our dining table there are some diamond shapes and whenever she walks past she points at them and says: - Little diamond. Here. Big diamond. There.
On the basis of this experience, sometimes we just walk around the house and identify shapes. (The mirror is a rectangle, the washing machine is a cube, the socket is a square and the hair bobble forms a circle etc.) It is also a good idea to collect smaller objects of different shapes in a light box that your child can walk around with. When you have like 10-15 things you can throw them all onto the floor and group them according to their shapes.

For E.'s first birthday I also bought a second hand Froggy with shapes on his tummy. When you turn it on one of the shapes starts flashing. You need to push the flashing button and the Froggy starts singing a famous nursery rhyme/song (Star - Twinkle, Twinkle, Triangle - Mary had a little lamb, Circle - Pat a cake and so on). Unfortunately, the square does not work any more, so whenever E. tries to make the square work I sing the Helen Doron Shapes song.

As Christmas was here I was planning to do a little christmasy shape fun, but I did not have time to make it. You can find a lovely Christmas tree decoration game with shapes here (ketnyelvugyerek.hu). The description is in Hungarian, but the picture speaks for itself.

Or a similar activity from Super Simple Learning with a template.

Another simple 3D Christmas tree decoration fun:

http://buggyandbuddy.com/christmas-activities-kids-decorate-felt-christmas-tree/

We are going to do all these next year I am sure, as a little revision. ;)

Finally, let me show you a picture of shape chaos after an hour of playing:

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Our new timeable for 2014

March 9, 2014, 2:23 pm

≫ Next: Numbers I. - The bottle cap calculator

≪ Previous: Shapes, shapes, shapes - there are all sorts of shapes

New year - new timetable. First I though we have been spending less time with English in 2014, but I was mistaken. We are spending more time with the second language than according to the previous year's timetable.

Here is the new chart:

49 % English time, 51 % Hungarian time

Of course we are flexible, this is just the plan. An illness, some unexpected visitors or a change in our helpers' schedule can alter the timetable but this is more or less the main framework.

You can see two areas in the timetable (Friday late afternoons, and dinner-/bath time) which are neither clearly dedicated to English nor Hungarian, or, I can put it, they are the most uncertain periods of the week. The reason for this is D. has been working a lot and because of his long hours we never know if he is at home at these times or not. So when he can't make it we use English. This is how we compensate for missing daddy.

Our native nanny, A., comes twice a week, a total of 6 hours per week.

A. and E. are reading Berry and Dolly

The timing of the Helen Doron sessions has been moved from the mornings to the afternoons and on a different day (Wednesday) but we still have one occasion per week. To be honest, we are not listening to the CDs as often as we used to. It is mainly because E. is a little bored of them (me too...) and she knows them all by heart, so what for? Still, she enjoys the lessons, especially painting (I'll write more about it in another post) and moving water from a teapot or a dish to a cup. Playing with scrunchy balls -crumpled newspaper sheets with cello-tape around them- and pots are also among her favourite activities. We sometimes play with them here at home as well.

Fascinated by the baby paint

Even if it is a Grandma day (using Hungarian) at the end of the day I always try to fit in some English playtime, cooking time, shopping time or playground visit etc.

whisking egg yolk

The weekends are the trickiest. As I really want father and daughter to build a strong and warm relationship we (the three of us together or just the two of them) have quite a great number of programmes in Hungarian environments. I find this more important than the language development.

Daddy time

However, at weekends I always try to spend some hours with English. These are not long, and not so interactive or highly communicative activities, like watching videos in English, or reading a story in English.

I'm looking into our bilingual future with confidence and great hope. 2014 will be even more successful than 2013 was.

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Numbers I. - The bottle cap calculator

March 26, 2014, 2:06 pm

≫ Next: Spring nature hunt with a muffin tray

≪ Previous: Our new timeable for 2014

We've been playing a lot with numbers recently, so here is the first post about a calculator that is very easy to make and fun to practise numbers with.

I found this idea not long ago on another blog: Learn with play at home. And I decided to make it as E. LOVES playing with calculators. Sometimes she asks for it and pushes the buttons for 15-20 minutes all by herself saying the numbers and signs (both in Hungarian and in English).

The first calculator was dropped so many times its display went wrong so we bought another, more simple one.

My idea was that she could have her own calculator that suits her little fingers.

tools

What you need:

cardboard
16 bottle caps (in my version)
scissors
superglue (dries withing 10 seconds)
markers and/or number stickers
ruler
a white sheet of paper

How to make it:

cut the cardboard (first arrange the bottle caps to see how big you need to cut the board)
stick or write the numbers and other signs on the caps
draw the display with the help of the ruler and the marker
glue the caps on the board

Sticking the caps on the cardboard is tough. I used superglue as the edge of the caps were very thin and I wanted them to dry quickly. (After few minutes of playing one of the caps came off, so this might not last as long as I wanted)

final result

The page I find this idea on also adds an extended version of the calculator game for those who have started learning to write. I'll introduce it later if E. still wishes to play with the bottle cap calculator.

Now she is enjoying it a lot.

I managed to record a video too, but it is too dark. If you have any ideas how to lighten it let me know and I'll attach it.

-------***-------***-------***-------***------- 27/03/2014-------***-------***--------***-------***-------

I've been trying to lighten the video but I couldn't. Here is the dark video anyway.
But I also recorded another one with our native nanny today. They are playing with the new calculator.

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Spring nature hunt with a muffin tray

April 24, 2014, 5:57 am

≫ Next: Doctor, doctor... - pretend play 1.

≪ Previous: Numbers I. - The bottle cap calculator

Spring has arrived, together with some rain but luckily today it's been sunny so we went out for a spring nature hunt.

I got the idea here. This blog is written by a Canadian mum, Jen and she's got great ideas I love stealing. The spring nature hunt is one of them.

So I was in a rush to prepare everything, because in the park where I was planning to do the nature hunt the grass is growing very high and it is likely to be mowed in the near future. Then we would lose all the wild flowers, high grass and our fun activity.

I've got and old muffin tray. It was in a very poor condition, so I sprayed it gold. This served as the receptacle (= a new word for me meaning: a container for storing or putting objects in) Then I made Daddy print the pictures of some nature items that I'd put together the previous night.

Our native nanny, A. arrived at 10.30 today and we were ready to set off.

E. is identifying what to look for

At firs E. was carrying the tray around, then we put it in the push chair.

E. is not a great fan of walking (she prefers to be carried), but this time she was running around looking for the items on the list, filling up the tray.

I thought it wouldn't be easy to find seeds, so I took some wheat seeds with me from home, but A. was very attentive and found some. I didn't need to fake anything :)

wheat heads

I knew exactly where we could find some moss. (E.'s favourite word from the list)

We also bumped into some bees and beetles we needed to observed closely.

One of E.'s favourite flowers is the dandelion and its clock. Now she didn't blow the seeds away, but collected them in the tray.

E. succeeded in tucking a big horse chestnut tree leaf in the hole. Well done, girl!

We found a shamrock with four leaves. We'll be lucky :)

Finding soil fascinated E. the most.

It was hard to find buds, but we managed in the end.

At home A. and E. went on to read E.'s nature book she got for Easter.

I'd like to thank Jen for the great idea. We spent a lovely hour with searching, enjoying the sunshine and learning a lot about nature.

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Doctor, doctor... - pretend play 1.

May 22, 2014, 12:40 pm

≫ Next: Housework fun

≪ Previous: Spring nature hunt with a muffin tray

E. has just turned 2 and in the last couple of months she has started to take pleasure in playing role-plays.
The followings are her favourite:

doctors
vets
cooking
tea party
shopping
sleeping
little house

First I'd like to post about playing doctors.

Playing doctors:

In February I bought an issue of Dora, the Explorer magazine (in Hungarian). It always includes some toys and this time it was a doctor's case a stethoscope and a syringe. At first she wasn't interested but around March she started to walk around with the stethoscope in her neck and giving injections to all the stuffed animal and our dog too.

We made her Teddy, Eric, Susie doll and Rabbit sit on the sofa; that was the waiting room. One by one she examined them saying:

- E. is examining Eric.

- Let's take Teddy's temperature.

- Breathe in, breath out.

- Thermometer goes in the armpit.

- Open your mouth wide.

- Eric has fever.

a spatula is also added to the kit

taking Teddy's temperature

open wide!

Then three weeks ago our dog got ill and we needed to go to the vet several times. E. came once and she was absolutely fascinated. The vet was amazed how clever and interested she was :)

She wanted to know every utensil in the surgery, looked at our dog's X-ray photo, she checked out some new born kittens and their mommy. She got a little frightened when the parrot screeched but she was also so engrossed with it she couldn't take her eyes off the bird. The vet was so kind that E. could borrow the doctor's case from the waiting area until the next morning (when our dog had to go back for another X-ray). As soon as we got home E. opened the doctor's case and examined the dog (again... poor thing).

She (and I, as well) learned a lot of new phrases both in Hungarian and in English (reflex hammer, otoscope, forceps, tweezers, bandage)

let's check his reflex.

listening to doggie's heart beat

examining Daddy - multi-tasking :)

Unfortunately we do not have a nice doctor's case with several tools (though I added a Nurofen tube, green mask, some bandage and plasters), we really need to buy a proper one together with a white doctor's coat. I've already prepared some flashcards on the topic but they are not finished yet.

So to finish with, here's a Doctor, doctor joke:

- Doctor, doctor, I keep thinking I'm a caterpillar.

- Don't worry, you'll soon change :D

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Housework fun

August 13, 2014, 11:56 am

≫ Next: Test - meeting a native cousin

≪ Previous: Doctor, doctor... - pretend play 1.

As E. doesn't really like playing alone and wants to be with Mommy all the time we need to do housework together. Actually, she is a great helper and likes taking part most of the times. I've read a lot about Maria Montessori and her method on the net and in this book:

I do not wish to popularise her method, I just found some interesting points I can build in my parenting theories and also in our bilingual journey. One of them is:

"He who is served is limited in his independence"

Doing housework together means a lot of language input, quality time together and E's preparation for real life assisting her in her developing independence.

IN THE KITCHEN

- Preparing food for cooking

Opening pea pods help to develop E's fine motor skill.

She could examine how the peas are in the pod.

She also learnt a sequence: taking one pod out of the bag, putting the peas in a bowl, placing the empty pod in the rubbish bag.
She can help wash the peas, but as soon as I turn the hob on she is finished in the kitchen.

Vocabulary newly learnt or practised:

green peas

pod

crack

separate

throw it away
grub
off
tiny

cutting the butter-bean up

examining the inside

placing the beans into a pot

Using a knife is something E has been longing for. With my very close supervision she had the chance to try it and found it hard: - Mommy, cutting is difficult.

Helping make the bean dish didn't mean she ate it :( although according to some blogger moms, their children became really enthusiastic to eat the food they prepared themselves.

Vocabulary newly learnt or practised:

chopping board

knife, knives
pot (stripy, big, empty, full)

butter-bean

bean dish
What's yummie for you? (offers the practice or revision of a lot of food)

wash

dirty, dirt

- Baking:

whisking

I made this rhubarb cake

Baking a cake has a better chance of success in the eyes of your child. They are more likely to consume what they made. It also involves a lot of kitchen tasks and equipment and the activities have to follow each other quickly, which keeps up the interest of a young kid. Developing gross motor skills is also a key point here, like whisking, mixing, measuring, stirring, pouring etc.

Vocabulary newly learnt or practised:
flour
baking powder
rhubarb
cake
scales
measuring spoon
wooden/mixing spoon
bowl
whisk
mix
stir
grab
crack an egg
white/yolk
lick the spoon
apron
delicious
tasty
sweet
sour
hot
dangerous
baking try
heat the oven

- Packing in and out of the dishwasher:

emptying the baby bottle into the sink

putting the baby bottle into the dishwasher

placing the cutlery into their draw

After a while I rearranged a shelf so she can easily reach her spoons, plates and glasses.

This is E's favourite household chore. No matter when I ask her to help with it, she never refuses. (It's not the case with hanging the clothes to dry). Also, she practises with this chore how to select and group similar objects, to name the objects and say their colours or material. She also learns where to find things she needs around the house.

Vocabulary newly learnt or practised:
cupboard
cutlery
tablespoon
fork
knife
teaspoon
ladle
glass
mug
cup
pot
bowl
plate
draw
sharp
dangerous
carefully
place
baby bottle
plastic
steal

IN THE BATHROOM

Another pleasant activity for E is to help with the laundry. Packing the clothes in the washing machine is not as much fun as pulling the wet clothes out.

Usually we put some of her clothes in a separate basket and while I'm putting the adult clothes on the rack, she is putting hers on a smaller rack (which we bought at REGIO toy shop but also available at Fakopáncs online shop)

hanging the clothes

opening the dry rack

fixing it with a peg

socks

matching socks with Daddy

on the way to the draw to put the socks away

This is not her favourite activity but she uses her English (and Hungarian) a lot when she is in the mood to help.

Vocabulary newly learnt or practised:
washing gel
softener
dry rack
hang
line
clothes peg
match
carry
fix
dry
still wet
pull out
pack in
laundry basket
dirty
clean
take off
names of clothing (socks, tights, trousers, shorts, T-shirt, blouse, panties, vest etc.)
Daddy's, Mommy's, E's

MISCELLANEOUS

The best part for me is when we decorate our home together. Of course, when she paints or creates something I put it on the wall or in her room. However, she takes pleasure in decorating for us not only for herself. At the market we bought 2 bunches of flowers and she made them into 4, arranging them in small vases.

adding some green leaves to the dahlias

we need some pink in this composition

She also enjoys watering the plants on the balcony.

Involving her in the household chores was one of the greatest idea and I'm really glad she likes it, too. It gives us the opportunity to be together, to practise her languages, to experience some practicalities of everyday life and to help her become more and more independent.

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Test - meeting a native cousin

August 24, 2014, 1:08 pm

≫ Next: Autumn leaves are falling down

≪ Previous: Housework fun

This weekend is all about relatives and languages. This is E's first real life test of her English (apart from our native Nanny). My husband's brother (M) and Spanish speaker wife (V) came to visit (they live in Germany) and I also had a little chance to practise my Spanish (which is surprisingly good, taken into account the little I've had to study in the last couple of months). This was my test.

E's test was to meet her 7 year old native English speaker cousin (K) as my husband's uncle and his family also came home for a visit (they live in the UK).

To cut the long story short, it was fantastic.

K and E played as if they'd known each other for a long time and language problems were nonexistent. There were some issues because of the age gap between them but not because they did not understand each other.

First, K came up with an idea to make a princess dress for E. So she took some paper, I found some crayons and markers and the work started. Drawing, colouring, sticking, trying on.

preparing the dresses

They interacted with each other in the most natural way: asking for a marker, saying thank yous, offering paper and Cellotape to each other and ask what the other is drawing/doing.

Let's try it on. I'll help you.

A beautiful princess

The magic wand was a great hit when they showed the outcome to everybody around the house.

Magic wands

Then they continued playing: I'll turn you into a ... magic wand game. E understood it very quickly and started to say: Mommy, I'll turn you into a bed.
So I lay down and they both climbed and lay on me. But we were frogs, babies, chickens, bum-bums :-D , horses, cats, princesses and so on.

After this the "Five little monkeys jumping on the bed" game came with a lot of jumping and falling, then they went on to play hide and seek. And this wasn't the end. K improvised a hopscotch, then we watched some Mother Goose Club videos on YouTube. 3 hours flew by really fast, we hardly noticed it. I should have taken more photos but to be honest I just wanted to enjoy the time with them.

We had a lovely time together and loads of fun. E passed her first "test" with flying As. She wanted to play with K no matter what (once K wanted to lift her up and dropped her. E cried for 2 minutes then running after K asked her to play more).

I was so proud of her managing in English and enjoying herself with an English speaking child to a great extent. The best feedback ever!!!

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Autumn leaves are falling down

September 19, 2014, 9:05 am

≫ Next: We love numbers - Numbers II.

≪ Previous: Test - meeting a native cousin

My favourite season has arrived and it seems E. is enjoying it a lot, too. On the way home from the nursery we always collect some things (leaves, berries, conkers, bark pieces, stones etc.) to play or to do some craft projects with.

I put some contact paper on the window (sticky side out) and on a tray I prepared all the leaves we'd collected. And the sticking started.

Daddy assisted the little artist.

Art critic: Doggie. He sniffed the leaves then moved away.

Final art piece: Autumn leaves are falling down (and some petals)

Another project of ours with the autumn leaves was making a hedgehog. I saw this ideas here.
I drew three hedgehogs (as this was also a family project) and we glued the leaves on their backs.

Serious gluing in process

Final pieces of art

Another leaf craft we've made:
(they are not with real leaves but crepe paper)

More gluing and more sticking

End result :)

More autumn crafts are on their way. Stay tuned!

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We love numbers - Numbers II.

September 20, 2014, 12:53 am

≫ Next: Fun with Flupe - the new Helen Doron package

≪ Previous: Autumn leaves are falling down

Every time before E. goes to sleep we have this conversation (either in English or in Hungarian):

E.: - Mommy, numbers.
M.: - Which numbers?
E.: - The little numbers.
M.: - 1, 2, 3, ...
E.: - No, Mommy. Zero....
M.: - Oh, yes, sorry. 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10
E.: - Now the big numbers.
M.: - 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90
E.: - Hundreeeed (giggles)

She is so fascinated by numbers that at the age of 18 months she could read the numbers on her baby bottle from 10 to 280.

Let's see some number games we play.

First of all, our favourite number songs:

Zero, zero, super hero

Ten in the bed

The new favourite: Ten Little Dinosaurs

The bottle top calculator is just as much fun as pushing the buttons on a real calculator.

What's missing?

I found a quite difficult number task on www.firstgradebrain.com. What comes between? This task is more for 4-5 year old kids, but we gave it a try. I printed the sheets laminated them and at first I just put one task in front of her with 3 possible options that can come between the two numbers.

Easy-peasy lemon squeezy

Much to my surprise it wasn't very difficult for her. We did two more of this task then she started to order the numbers. All by herself.

There is nothing more to add :)

Ordering the numbers - Making big numbers

I printed the numbers from 1 to 10 in two copies. I coloured and laminated them and the fun could begin.

First, I put them in order, then she matched the other set.

We played a memory game with them. (There are ladybird stickers on one side of the cards so that you can't see what is on the back)

Let's start

I've found a match

With these numbers, A., our British nanny, played another game. She and E. made big numbers putting the numbers next to each other.

110

And some basic additions.

Watermelon seeds counting game

I found the idea at a blog called Toddler Approved! which I really like following as they have great and easy to make ideas.

So I just made the watermelon slices out of a green foam sheet, a white and a red sheet. I glued the different coloured paper on top of each other.

Turning the slices right side up

On the back of the slices there are the numbers written. (the slices deliberately grow in size from 1 to 10 so there is more room for the seeds and in this way we can put the slices in growing order.)

counting

I picked raisins instead of the chocolate chips recommended in the Toddler Approved blog post. Healthier and they do not leave a mark. I put them in a box and the counting started.

One raisin rolled down

We can do many other things with the watermelon slices:

put them in order according to the numbers (or backwards)

This is four, Mommy
order them according to their sizes
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 ...
throw a lot of raisins on a slice and eat up all the "seeds" that are not necessary in order to have the number of seeds on the slice as written on the back

yummie
explain how to eat up all the raisins to someone who does not know this game
there is one - look

And this is how you scoff the raisins

Number stickers - Helping Little Mole build a house

I drew a brick wall and Little Mole's head on a sheet of paper. Some bricks had the numbers on them from 0-10. On rectangle shaped empty stickers I wrote the numbers from 0-10. E. had to build the wall putting the stickers in the right places, on the matching number. She filled the empty bricks with empty stickers. (Sorry about these photos, they were taken by my mobile; this is why the quality is poor.)

(You can buy these stickers at a "one euro shop" - well, in Hungary at the Chinese markets or shops)

This idea has endless varieties: with the ABC, with big numbers, matching animals, clothes, everyday objects, playing with the colours, copying patterns etc. If you have any idea how to expand this game share it with me in the comments.

Books - some fun books to finish with

Dora the Explorer - A Birthday for Boots (By Scholastic)

In this Dora book, she and her friends buy some goody bags for Boots' birthday party, but Swiper always takes away one every page.

I bought this book when E was just 1 year old and she loved looking at the pictures. You can talk about a lot of things in the pictures. There can be a lot of counting (goody bags, candle sticks, balloons etc.) but also naming objects connected to a birthday party.

My very first book of numbers by Eric Carl

This book is divided in two parts horizontally and your child needs to find and match the fruits in the bottom part with the numbers (written in numerals and also represented with black squares). As E. has passed two years old, she doesn't need help, but around last Christmas when she got this book she needed help with the page turning and matching.

Flip me! Counting 1-10 (By Buster Books) You can read the full review of it here. I'm quoting just the essential part of it:

"Counting 1-10 has pages divided into two panels, which kids can rearrange to match. One side has photographs of objects to count <dolls, dinosaurs, sand toys, cars etc.>, along with words identifying the number and name of the object; the other side shows the numerals from 1-10."

Once we took this flip book on a longer car journey. While she was looking at it, E. threw up. Use it some other places. It's quite nice.

As numbers and counting are in E's focus, I'll come back with some more number games in the near future.

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