Row your boat- down by the river - the fishing game

Some two weeks ago we went for a trip to Tokaj (some 30 km from Ny City), it was a daytrip and fun too. We planned to have a coffee somewhere in the old city and just walk along by the river, but suddenly daddy had this brilliant idea to go for a cruise down the river (and back of course). So we talked to the Captain of Csege (the old sea dog) and then after waiting an hour and for others to join (at least 12 people are needed for a cruise) at 11 o'clock the captain said 'all aboard' and the adventure started. The captain gave us a little brief about the trip and then we all dipped ourselves in the deep blue Bodrog, well just the beauty of it. We started singing songs like Row your boat with the crocodile ending, the little one loves it so much and we saw some fish, so we sang the 'Once I caught a fish alive' counting song.

We had a great time there.

When we got back home we did some fishing. We have a hand-made collection of beautiful colourful fish and a couple of handy, baby proof fishing rods. The fish was made by my mom; we used a template I found on the internet. You need some steel rings attached to the fish. Originally the fishing rod was a wooden cane with a string with a magnet at the end, but it proved to be way too dangerous, the little one started using it as a whip, so we had to confiscate it and figure out something to replace it. I couldn’t think of a way to do it right, then when we took part in an English nursery rhyme class I saw this solution you can find below. That was a real AHA experience. So I made some of them, a little bit tailored them, but basically the idea is the same, so thank you B! (B. is the leader of the rhyme group). So the rod is made of a plastic scoop which is included in our formula milk box so we have got plenty of these at home, I put the magnet in, then put some  on it and sealed the whole construction with a plastic top, this is one way I did it. There is another way, basically the same, but I ran out of the little magnet buttons, so I found these fridge magnets and put them in the plasticine bed and it is working all right.

Finest selection

One, two, three, four, five once I caught a fish alive.

You need a steel ring

My little AHA experience

Fish in a basket.

It is fun to play with, it is safe for babies as well, magnets fascinates children, they even fascinate me still ... I always loved magnets. I use it quite ofther, try to integrate them into our little home made toy projects.

The little one started saying some new things: like fish in the water, fish (are) jumping in the water,

Montessori inspired toys and activities

The other day I ordered a great big box of board games from V@tera  (some 8 different second hand games for 625 ft each. It was a bargain and I can reuse it and combine them, and just use them partly or entirely or just save them for Christmas (there are some never used). Anyway I am hooked on the Montessori inspired resources.

Montessori education is an educational approach developed by Italian physician and educator Maria Montessori and characterized by an emphasis on independence, freedom within limits, and respect for a child’s natural psychological, physical, and social development. 

Read the whole entry click here .

Sorting and spooning are a core activity in a Montessori classroom. (source: Kreative Resources)

So among the newly ordered board games there was this squirrel game, and it is from Ravensburger after all... for 625 ft.... this is not a typical brainless roll the dice and move board game, it includes some thinking and decision making, but this feature can be pretty well put aside for another 4 years at least I think... not for my baby, or me (at the moment I feel a bit brainless myself) muhaha. (Well we have got a toddler, so it doesn't matter really at the moment, I only want to use the squirrels and borrow their wheelbarrows). Originally it comes with pinecones as little as an ant or something, so I carefully bagged them and save them for Christmas :) or later times. So I am around and about to use the squirrels and their yellow, green, blue, red wheelbarrows only as I said before. 

Source: boardgame geek

How does the Montessori method come to the picure? Well I like mixing things, and this time I matched TESCO's 50 Favourite board games with the Squirrel Game. I used the tiny colourful buttons from the Tesco set of games and mixed them with the Squirrel Game.  It is a very simple colour matching game really, I just gave it a little pimp with these not so home-made looking materials. (Do not get me wrong I adore home made things but these ready made materials are very pretty, time and labour saving).

These are my little hardworking squirrels

So we have the 4 different coloured buttons and the matching squirrels with their matching wheelbarrows and the colour matching can get started. Easy and fun way to teach your toddler some colours and new vocabulary like (wheelbarrow, squirrel and maybe pretend pinecones).

The pretend pinecones.

The squirrels in action.

Plus side: cheap, great fun, looks good, and you have plenty of space for improvisation.
Downside: contains small pieces, choking hazard, can be messy.

Apple Tree - a home made activity for autumn

I have this little English playgroup called Mums' English Club (MEC)  Nyíregyháza chapter where we have thematic events each week. The topic for September is autumn (what else) and I thought it might be nice to do some colour matching, sorting activities with the little ones. So I laminated a tree sticker (which I found in my son's room on the wall, well I borrowed it for good) and punched some apples from coloured paper (red, green and yellow) plus dedicated three mini fridge boxes to be our baskets and that is all really. (oh, yes and we had some leaves I borrowed from a previous game 'the ladybird number match, which I do not use with that game but I make use of them here).

I laminated an apple tree (a sticker from our rented apartment's wall, I only hope the owner doesn't mind), you need a punch apple shaped and some colour papers and three little baskets.

The punch and the yellow, green and red apples (I stuck to reality, did not make purple and blue apples and also I think 3 colours to sort are plenty... especially knowing what I know (ie. the little one is more interested in blowing the apples off the tree than picking them up :) So if you fancy trying out this game at home, be careful with the apples :) do not punch too many of them.

The song (and sing along)

The apple tree song

Here is the tree with leaves so green

Here are the apples in between

And when the wind blows

The apples fall

Here are the baskets to gather them all.

We act it out, I show my son (and the other toddlers) the apple tree, the leaves (name the colour 'green' and you can count to ten), the apples (punched them with an apple shaped punching maching) and then I put a pile of colourful apples on the laminated sheet and started blowing (pretending I am the wind) and then the apples fall and then the apple picking can get started. (at the moment the blowing part is the absolute favourite of my son, so he doesn't want to stop blowing the apples and start picking them up and put them into the baskets sorting them by colors). 

Extra features:

After picking and sorting apples by colours you can also have some real apples on a tray and eat those crunchy things together, you know 'an apple a day...'.
Follow up:
We use this game to introduce the story of Eric Carle's The Very Hungry Caterpillar. (watch the author reading out the story).

 

Summary

Plus side: The fun factor is high, cheap and education game, can be played anywhere anytime.

Downside: Can be a bit messy. I always put a blanket on the floor before the fun kickstarts it makes life a bit easier when you have to clean up the mess ... well you might be able to encourage your little ones to start and pick up the apples... in our case we always end up with a mess and finish it with the blowing part.

Native Teacher

When we moved to Nyíregyháza, I was desperate to find a native speaker to book her for a couple of ours on a weekly basis. Well it wasn't that easy... it took me 3 months to find one and book her and eventually she put us on a waiting list for another three weeks... but now it works smoothly and we also managed to find other mums interested so we can share the cost of the fee and also our children are in company. 

She is very British and speaks the Queen's English and very good with children. 

The little one likes her and accepted her from day one. We started to have a 45 Minute 'lesson' a week and now from next week on we are going to have two lessons per week. 

Her background

They moved to Hungary some 10 years ago, her and her husband and their daughter. (She keeps saying the reason why R. has no brothers or sisters is that one English girl in a family is more than enough.) They are very nice people, her husband M. has a sort of British Club in Amnesia Cafe in the downtown, it is free of charge and only a group of people is aware of the existence of it so it is quite good to have, though I am reluctant now to get there, well I am too lazy I guess. They live in a so called 'bokor tanya' near the new LEGO building site. They are a real phenomenon in Nyíregyháza, many people know them by sight, because they have an old rusty car with a great big ad on the top saying English Language Coaching and also K. has a strange bag with built in lights white in the front and red at the back.  They are a bit strange well very British.

She is very calm and gentle with children, sharp and always dead on time, she sticks to her timetable but she is flexible too. Their favourite character is Wallace and Gromit probably they try to hold on the their roots throught these two characters. 

Her teaching method:

She applies her own method, loads of repetition (which might seem to be a bit boring through the eyes of the parent, but it is not boring for a less than two year old). She's got her own teaching aids, like laminated sheets with magnets and stuff like that, those hand-made things fascinate me so much. She even has a home published book (well a series of books) the first part of which is the story of Sid, a little snake who goes to the park and sees different animals (butterfly, bird, bee, dragon fly) and the playground a swing, a slide, a little pond and so on. The book introduces some of the mispronounced sounds of the English language for example 'th'

She says:

Sid says thhhhhhhhhh (sticking out of her tongue and exaggerating this sound) little one has hysterics when he hears it (well especially when it was first introduced, now he knows the whole story by heart) I think it is about time to step forward and start volume 2. 

K. with the little group

 Larry Lama says 't' and Mo Monkey say 'w' and children found it very funny. During the summer our little one went through such a miraculous phase as far as his language development is concerned. He started with words and now he can sing songs and say more complex language elements and it is so encouraging for us (meaning mummy and daddy).

I am so grateful for the time she spends with us and looking forward to seeing how the winter timetable with the two small groups works out. 

Status Report on language development

Our Bilingual Journal  Part 1

It is so difficult to look back on and recall the milestones on the road we have already come along and make a summary of it. I assume it is way easier to just record our status now and then start logging what is ahead of us...

The little Chatterbox is now 21 months old. I kept a record of every single new word he uttered, but I stopped doing that a while ago, there were so many new words ... I try to put some of the most important details down.

Groups of words he knows:

Family:

Mummy, Daddy, anya, apa, papa (sometimes he calls granddad apa (probably because of the Hungarian nagyapa), an interesting thing about his language development is the way he switches between languages. Mummy and Anya and Daddy and Apa is a great example for this, when talk in English, he calls me Mummy and his father Daddy, and when Hungarian he calls me Anya and his dad apa. This proves that he know the difference between the two languages.

Colours:

Purple, white, yellow (sounds like 'hello'), red, green, black, orange, pink (knows them in Hungarian as well) an important thing about picking up the words of colours is the way he did it ... A couple of months ago I was desperate to teach him the colours, I do know why, I just had a thing about it... (I am exaggerating, I was not desperate, but gave it a go occasionally and always with the conclusion that he was way too young to distinguish the colours ... and then I just did not pay attention to it (did not overdo it probably) and then one day, not too long ago, he started using the names of the colours and also was and is able to sort things by colours. It amazes me still.  I am very much inspired by the Montessori tools focusing on colours (I have made some tools inspired by the Montessori Method; I'll dedicate an entry for them later). The first colour word he learnt was PURPLE and he stuck to it whatever came (meaning everything was purple to him).

Animals:

Farm animals: horse, dog, cat, duck, piggy, cow (I am not sure, he might just says moo moo), chicken, rooster and is able to produce all the sounds they make ... well he could produce all the animal sounds way before he started telling the names of the different animals.

Zoo (or wild) or other animals: spider, tiger (among the first animals he could name, because of his favourite drinky drink Sio Vita tigris), elephant, bird, turtle (the very first animal name, purple-turtle sound alike), snake, snail, bunny, dinosaur, fox, monkey,

Means of transport:

bus (most frequent word), car (among the very first words), digger, crane, choo choo train, aeroplane, mixer, tractor with a bucket, caterpillar, pick up, tuk tuk, bike, fire engine, ambulance, helicopter (bit struggling to pronounce this word, do not blame him), 'nino car' for all the ER cars, truck, monster truck

In Hungarian: busz, autó(val), kocsi(val), kamion, bici(kli), autók mennek úton

Parts of the body:

Eyes (among the first ones), nose, ears, mouth, chin (whenever he asks for cheese, he keeps signing (he uses his own sign language, never taught how to sign properly)... he points at his chin and says cheese), elbow, toes, tummy, belly button, thumb (fe fi fo fum ....) put in choo choo train on (the) track (he uses 'put in' when put it would be more appropriate.

Toys and games:

see-saw ( he says see-saw mummy daddy, because he knows that mummy cannot do see-saw to him on her own, we need daddy to help, we play see-saw at home with a great big blanket to give him a good old swing)

Book, pen (when he wants to play with something new, he just say THIS and pokes me with the toy... stacking.

This set of stacking nesting blocks are beautiful and arty too, he likes it very much along with the Helen Doron stacking song.

Audio-Visual
Number One: PEPPA PIG in capital letters (haha, he just adores it and me and daddy too), Helen Doron Baby's Best Start, Mother Goose Club on You Tube, some AudioGo CD-s I bought the downloadable versions of and a number of books like

I bought this book second hand in a good condition, it has fallen apart since (very nice book, nice colours, illustrations are great, extra fun with the jig saw).

He cannot say the name Thomas instead he uses 'tasz' or something.

A series of books, called talkabout books, very colourful and educational, with a pinch of activities for toddlers (like shadow matching, and prompting questions).

One of his faves, there is a part he asks me to read over and over again, when the big bus says tootoot to the little bus rumbling out of the garage... nice story, nicely illustrated, I like it too.

Tickle, Tickle by Helen Oxenbury (he just adores it, it is ideal to leaf through this book before bath time, bed time becuse it is exactly about the evening routine.

More complex language elements He also started using a more complex language both in English and in Hungarian. For example today he said ‘autók mennek úton’ and he says’ Sid the snake says ‘thhhhhhhh’ (well, this one has a history, we have a native teacher and she has a story about different animals who pronounce some very British sounds like ‘th’, ‘w’ and ‘t’ I will write about her later) anyway he started saying things like:  ·         Nino car (i.e. police car) says niiiii nouuuu niii nouuuuu. or ·         Doggy says vau vau (it is mixture of languages, but he consequently says so, well it is probable my fault, because I did not tell him that the English dogs bark differently). ·         Duck says quack quack quack etc. Singing songs and nursery rhymes together That is my favourite part. I just adore the way he started singing and telling a whole story on his own, well sometimes incomprehensibly, sometimes he fabricates some new words or syllables but most importantly recognizably. He joins in when I sing the Incy Wincy Spider, the first one was the Baa Baa Black Sheep with our Native Teacher, and the Wheels on the bus and now thank goodness the list is so long.

 

More complex language elements

He also started using a more complex language both in English and in Hungarian. For example today he said ‘autók mennek úton’ and he says’ Sid the snake says ‘thhhhhhhh’ (well, this one has a history, we have a native teacher and she has a story about different animals who pronounce some very British sounds like ‘th’, ‘w’ and ‘t’ I will write about her later) anyway he started saying things like: 

·         Nino car (i.e. police car) says niiiii nouuuu niii nouuuuu.

or

·         Doggy says vau vau (it is mixture of languages, but he consequently says so, well it is probable my fault, because I did not tell him that the English dogs bark differently).

·         Duck says quack quack quack etc.

Singing songs and nursery rhymes together

That is my favourite part. I just adore the way he started singing and telling a whole story on his own, well sometimes incomprehensibly, sometimes he fabricates some new words or syllables but most importantly recognizably.

He joins in when I sing the Incy Wincy Spider, the first one was the Baa Baa Black Sheep with our Native Teacher, and the Wheels on the bus and now thank goodness the list is so long.