Weekly review: Week ending January 18, 2019

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  • Us
    • My back hurt from carrying A- and the swimming gear.
    • W- and I watched Bridget Jones’ Diary again.
  • Gross motor
    • We had a full day of gross motor activity. We found an indoor drop-in centre with tricycles, balls, and a slide. After A- had fun there, we went swimming. She napped while I carried her to visit a friend’s house 2 km away.
  • Language
    • “I’m imagining myself growing in Mama’s sweater.”
    • “Mama, say, ‘Where did you go?'” “Where did you go?” “I put on my snowsuit.” A- put on her snowsuit all by herself in order to roleplay Merry Christmas, Little Pookie.
    • “Am I driving you crazy?”
  • Music
    • E- sang Itsy Bitsy Spider around 6 times, getting progressively louder and louder. Jen and I were very amused. A- started singing it too. We taught them the Great Canadian Spider variation.
  • Self-care and independence
    • After snack at the drop-in centre, A- carefully put her plate and cup in the garbage.
  • Eating
    • Maple-glazed peameal bacon: Less salty than regular ham.
    • Chicken pot pie with lard crust: We used this crust again, with an egg wash on top. It worked out all right. I thickened the filling with butter and flour.
    • Chicken piccata: Tangy. A- helped dredge the chicken and taste the sauce.
  • Sleep
    • A- was overtired, so W- rocked her to sleep.
  • Household
    • A- noticed that the brown sugar jar was empty. “We need sugar,” she said. She fetched the bag of brown sugar that I’d completely forgotten about and started refilling the jar.
    • A- helped me make oatmeal cookies.
    • W- bought A- a small red shovel. She loved using it to move snow.
  • Social
    • W- played with A- while Lola watched over Facebook chat.
    • “What’s in the bag, A-?” “Luke!” “You managed to get a cat in the cat bag?”
    • At the drop-in centre, A- played beside another kid. They pretended to clean the centre.
    • A- made a Duplo chocolate cake with a candle, and she sang Lola (advanced) happy birthday.
    • Back to music class after a long break. A- spent most of the class clinging to me.
    • We visited Jen and E-. A- was more interested in playing with Jen or with E-‘s toys than with E-, but they’re probably a bit young for that anyway. Both E- and A- were delighted by the squeaky skunk puppet that Jen used. Jen and I chatted about crafts, boundary-testing, and other parenting topics.
    • Jen redirected E- to spray instead of playing in the kitchen sink, and I nudged A- to wipe with a towel. The combination worked pretty well.
    • I asked A- to tell J- and W- that dinner was ready, which she did with great enthusiasm. W- was in the bathroom, so she stood outside the door and kept saying “Dinner is ready!” until he came out.
  • Pretend
    • A- really wanted to go outside, so I helped her into her snowsuit and asked her to stay on the deck while I watched her from inside. There was no snow, but she had lots of fun pretending to make snowballs and throw them at me.
    • A- brought a cup, a stick, some tape, and a jingly ball upstairs. W- helped her make a bell, which they taped to the wall and used for some pretend play.
  • Cognition
    • A- wanted to go with W- to buy a kid-size shovel after breakfast, but we helped her realize that could mean missing swimming.
  • World
    • “Can we try turning it off and on again?”
  • Thoughts
    • “Learning Through Play in My Own Way” has a matrix of skills.

Blog posts

Time

More sleep this week because A- got more sleep too. I wasn’t sure whether she was just settling early for a nap or going for a long sleep, so I slept along with her just in case.

Category The other week % Last week % Diff % h/wk Diff h/wk
Sleep 31.1 37.7 6.5 63.3 11.0
Discretionary – Play 3.8 5.4 1.6 9.1 2.7
A- 43.9 44.0 0.1 73.9 0.1
Discretionary – Productive 3.8 3.2 -0.6 5.4 -1.1
Personal 4.8 3.5 -1.2 6.0 -2.1
Unpaid work 8.3 6.2 -2.1 10.4 -3.6
Business 4.2 0.0 -4.2 0.0 -7.1
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