Ta ’s photostream on Flickr.
Nice photos.
Spring time fun
A lot of activities for Air recently. We went for bicycle ride along Schuylkill river, Air was sleeping on her seat. 
She loves her magnetic fish puzzles, can play it quite well.
We also went to Comcast Tower one day before dusk, enjoying the center city life, I guess.
She loves outdoor playground, slides, bridges, and swings.
And we just had a wonderful weekend for Philly’s Science Festival, I think she could get more engaged when she is a bit older, so that she could actually participate all those activities. But for now, she loves the balloons the best.
Spring time weekend
With the weather gets better and better and Air getting bigger and bigger, time for us to plan a lot of activities for this great time of the year.
We went to the Liberty place to check out the Canstruction exhibit on Saturday, and found some nice hair bands for Air at claire’s club, my mom did some pony tails right away, which is a significant way to tell “I am a girl” since Air’s hair is always kind of short, and sometimes the dressing maybe more like a boy, so we got a bit confusion some times.
And Sunday we went to the Smith Playground with Air’s friend from daycare, http://smithplayground.org/, which is a really nice place. It is our first time there, and we had so much fun. There are the indoor playhouse as well as outdoor playground, it certainly makes me feel like designing a playground at some point if I can. That could be a really nice project idea, or maybe I could design something for Air at home first. I think we will definitely go there more often!
Also in the afternoon, we went for a bicycle ride along Schuylkill River trail, enjoying the cherry blossom in Philadelphia. Many many people were enjoying the beautiful afternoon, relaxing along the river, nice weather, nice view, but Air seems a bit tired from the morning play, but I cannot let her miss the wonderful flower time.
Bilingual Air
I should’ve started researching about raising bilingual kids a bit earlier, however, better than never done it.
Here are two articles from NY times about the benefit of bilingual, “Hearing Bilingual: How Babies sort out Language” - http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/11/health/views/11klass.html?_r=0 ; and “Why Bilinguals are smarter” – http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/11/health/views/11klass.html?_r=0
And more digging into the topic, it seems better that one person only use one language, which seems make sense because you don’t want to confuse your small person. Now for me trying to help Air to accomplish both English and Chinese, I try to start the understand the idea better myself first. Some theory says there has to be 30% exposure time while she is awake for any language you plan to teach your little one. And it is better that for one person, only one language. And the way I understand it is we want to help them to understand the two different languages or however many. It is very complicated and abstract concept for them. And for one person saying one language only scenario, they get a sense of which language they are supposed to speak into. However, I’ve done mixing English and Chinese. And unfortunately, it seems impossible for both my husband and me never speaking English at home. So with that 30% exposure time, I try to make myself feel better. We read her a lot of books, talk with her primarily in Chinese, pointing things and explain things in Chinese, and I tell her, Chinese and English are two different things, later on you will understand. The totally different two patterns for these two language, I think they are both in her by now, since she goes to daycare during the day, and the teacher there says she says a lot of words.
And she does pronounce a lot of things in English now, like “B” “baby” “go”, her teacher said she even mumbled thank you one day. I guess “Baba” “Mama” are for both languages, couldn’t tell whether she tries to say English or Chinese. She did say “Yao” (要) at one point when I asked her to repeat after me then I will give her some sweet treats. So I guess still a long way to go for keep stimulating my little one with her language development. We have a goal setup for her next checkup, so fighting!
Besides the language, a lot of fun activities from last weekend. We went for a bike ride along Schuylkill River, Air watched a lot of birds, enjoyed running up and down the small hill slope, walking on the plaza near the museum. It was all fun until she refused to take the last ride back to home, which makes her daddy and herself pretty famous along the way back. And we went to the Philly Flower show on Sunday. Air was very exciting to see all kinds of different flowers and plants. We had a lot of fun and a lot of wonderful photos. Just make husband and myself really tired, but the moment we see all those wonderful smiles in the photos, it feels everything is worth it.
Finding Activity ideas for Air
I am searching ideas to play with my energized toddler, feel needing to have some inspiration. Doing some new so that we can all have fun.
Found this website, seems pretty good, Hands on: as we grow, http://handsonaswegrow.com/
Also for toddler, 50 activities just for your toddler, http://handsonaswegrow.com/50-toddler-activities/
Another blog, The Imagination Tree, http://www.theimaginationtree.com/
And one book they recommend, The Toddler’s Busy Book: 365 Creative Games and Activities to Keep Your 1 1/2- to 3-Year-Old Busy http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0671317741/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=top-posts-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0671317741
As the spring is coming, the three of us get equipped with bicycle gears, last weekend, we had a short ride out, hope this coming weekend would be warmer and we can ride more.
Some reading about Montessori activities at home
Writing it down today, and try to do them together with Air tomorrow.
We are pushing Air’s bedtime slight back gradually, so we got more time spending together. Should find some fun activities to do.
One thing I am also a little not sure is whether we should just the child be or try to direct them in a certain way. But looks like I am leaning towards to the second option.
Anyway, after more researching about the Montessori materials, it looks like it is really about the practicality of life and logic, which is a good thing, I guess I just need to spice it up with some imaginations which could be endless from an energized toddler.
To give the credibility, I get my resource from here.
http://www.dailymontessori.com/
Montessori Activities at Home Environment
- Pouring a drink – didn’t try this one yet, but I think Air will like this one a lot. She loves to play with water. Could be a fun bath activity.
- Brushing Hair – Air knows to brush her hair, although the comb sometimes is used at wrong side.
- Brushing Teeth – Air doesn’t like to brush her teeth at all, every night it is a fight to do this, not sure how to make this more fun.
- Setting the table – Sounds like something needs to wait when Air is bit older.
- Folding Clothes – Air is throwing away her clothes on the floor all the time.
- Watering Plants – Same as number one. Could try.
- Wiping a table – Air knows this one. She uses her wash cloth that is supposed to wash her to clean her small table all the time.
About language development.
Air is definitely trying to absorb two languages at the same time. Our pediatrician sets a goal for us, next visit, three words.
I like this Montessori 3 Period Lesson,http://www.dailymontessori.com/montessori-age-12-24-months/
First, teach the object and the word.
Second, ask the child to point out the object when you talk about it.
Third, ask the child to name the object as you point it.
Those are complicated three steps for the kids, but I guess we could set up this as a way to introduce Air words, although in our case, we have to say both English and Chinese. Anyway, I think I found something for me to do for the rest of the night.
Learning to cook
Air is getting tired of Chinese Food, so have to learn and try something new. The child’s curiosity is really wonderful, making my husband and myself learn something else. I am flipping through punchfork, found some wonderful blogs, got a lot of inspirations and new idea. It is good to make something ordinary more interesting. Also Air enjoyed egg celery salad sandwich quite much.
DIY my little one’s Montessori Home Education
“As they play, young children are actually doing the most important work of their lives – creating the people they will become.” – Maria Montessori
Air is growing so fast, maybe I could do something to help her a bit more. There is one Montessori school right next to our new home, however the tuition is way too expensive. I guess before we really invest that kind of fortune, I’d better understand the system and theory better. And surely there are a lot of free info online already, maybe something that I could start.
Also, she is really staring daycare next Monday, hopefully she will go through this transition period.
When can I walk on my own?
Honestly, I cannot wait for her walking on her own.
I think that would really make my day. Anytime soon I guess, just have to wait….
Air @ Supermarket
I am kind of going backwards a bit, since I have many many photos that I’d like to share.
Usually we took many many photo, especially on weekend. But she just had some rush and her face almost became like strawberry. So there is about a bit more than a week that we didn’t really use our camera at all.
She is not quiet for a moment. So we were just forcing her to stay in the cart. Anyway, doing grocery is for our everyday life, and Air wants to contribute on that too.
