Author: nonnativemommy

Big Sister teaches Baby Sis

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Whenever E, is in the mood (more and more frequently) she shows Baby L. how we do things around a house, how she should eat with a spoon or drink with a straw. Baby Sis always has a great time whenever her Big Sister pays a close attention to her.

Of course, we do it in both languages. It’s great practice for E. and learning opportunity for L.

“Teaching” started when L. was about 6 months old. With flashcards and books:

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Later on E. enjoyed feeding Baby Sis to show how to use a spoon.

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After a few months now Baby Sis can do it all by herself.

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E. is explaining Baby Sis how to unload the dishwasher.
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Big Sister is teaching baby L. how to place the dish-washer tablet in.

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Then starting the dishwasher.

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It’s still housework time. Loading the washing-machine.

“These are your tights” – said E. and put them in the washing-machine. Then L. gave her a purple onesie.20170307_121027.jpg

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It’s baby L.’s privilege to push the start button.

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Drinking with a straw is not a problem if you can watch your Big Sister how to do it.

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Don’t get me wrong. It’s not all sunshine and lollipops. There are quite a lot of screaming, and some hitting, pinching, scratching when the girls get frustrated in some tense situations. But it’s getting better and better. Now I (and E. too) see the light at the end of the tunnel. All in all, it’s great to have a Big Sister, as well as a Baby Sis.

Feelings and emotions

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E. has always had difficulties expressing, then later on naming, emotions. Probably, I’m not helping her much as it isn’t easy for me to express emotions so that others can understand it easily.

I’ve tried talking about feelings with her, or identify emotions in different situations but she wasn’t interested, she wasn’t ready to discuss such issues.

But now the time has come. She’s been watching this video for a while and she’s been talking about it ever since. The most frequent question in our home lately is: – Mommy, how do you feel now?

So I’ve made this ad hoc activity on the basis of the character in the video (a rabbit). Hopefully I’ll have time to make a digital version of it and make it available for you to use with your little ones. I have to admit I can’t draw…

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The activities are not only the traditional matching ones. I wanted to make them more fun and help E. be able to focus on them for a longer time. (there were 5 pages altogether)

Apart from “match with a line”, she needed to colour, use building blocks, copying, drawing symbols to match the faces and the emotions.

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Towards the end (4th and 5th pages) the emotions become more and more difficult to identify.

On the way of doing this task we were talking about when we feel in certain ways. She also added some really good examples:

I feel angry when water friends don’t do what I say.

I’m frustrated when I can’t put on my boots.

We’ve reached a very important topic. We must talk about emotions in Hungarian, too. I never make activities that have anything to do translations. I hardly ever draw a parallel between English and Hungarian, but this time I definitely will. Stay tuned, there will be more on feelings and emotions.

Timetable for 2017

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In the last couple of years there hasn’t been a fixed timetable as for our English usage. There used to be a daily/weekly routine when E. was little but now life has become a little more spontaneous … or shall I say chaotic?

There are 3 fixed activities for the week and these are the following:

  • Helen Doron English class with L.
  • Mums’ English Club with both kids
  • E.’s nanny’s visit

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What you see above is the plan, however, several times it is overwritten by illnesses, emergencies or simple laziness. I’m trying hard to include 1-2 hours of active playtime with Baby L., but if I want to be perfectly honest sometimes we go 2-3 days without any English. It makes me sad and worried about her English language development.

I was planning to take E. for a Saturday drama class that is in English but we’ve been ill quite a lot or we had to make up for the lost time at the weekend so I decided to postpone this activity for September.

My hope is to find another nanny for Baby L. as our Canadian nanny only comes to play with E.

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E. (15 months) in the zoo with our nanny, A.

I clearly remember the time when E. was as little as Baby L. now and A., our British nanny at that time came to play baby games with her. Such a vivid and lovely memory. I’d like L. to experience the same.

I was checking sitters.hu and also contacted 3 of them but I haven’t received any replies yet. Still hopeful.

So that’s all about our English activities for the year.

Baby Sis – language development

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L. turned 1 in December and her babbling and cooing is more and more like talking. Of course, we comprehend little, but she understands everything we say to her in both languages.

 

At the moment, baby L. is almost 14 months old. For a month now she’s been using sign language as a way of communication with us. She shows the sign of more, hello/bye, me, flashcards, where, eating, bird, duck, yes, milk, sleep just to mention a few.

On the other hand she’s started to say words, mainly English ones as they are much easier to pronounce than the Hungarian words. She loves words starting with b:

  • boob (well, she’s breastfed )
  • bra (her favourite word at the moment)
  • bray (for bracelet)
  • bú (Hungarian version of what the cow says – moo)
  • bee (for bib)

Also likes words starting with D:

  • dut (duck)
  • Daddy (more like daaaaa-dy)
  • dog

Whenever she sees a dog she says “vau” (sometimes more like “bau”), which is the Hungarian word for woof. (She looooves dogs)
She used to say “tej” (milk) but nowadays she’s rather been showing the sign or saying boob.
So far so good. Keep going my little girl.

 

Carnival fan decor

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Apart from the garlands we made for decorating our flat for the carnival season, E. and I made this really large and spectacular window fan decor.

E. is in the phase of folding. She isn’t interested in folding her clothes (what a pity!) but paper. I thought we should do something with this folding. Well, our window fan decor turned out pretty well.

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E. chose 7-8 different coloured paper (A4) and we folded them starting at the short side. When we were finished with all 8 sheets, we started to staple them at the bottom to make a fan. Then we stapled them together on their sides.   Actually, E. stapled them very carefully (under my close supervision).

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After stapling the sides together, we realised 7 was enough. I put a string on the top of it and hang it in the window.

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To be honest after a day I found a middle too scruffy (the staples were visible and there were holes between the sheets so I cut out a circle and glued it in the middle.

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Pretty and easy, eh?

How do you decorate your home during the carnival season?