Casper: 3.5
Feb. 28th, 2007 12:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fleaToday is Casper's half-birthday; she's three and a half and is definitely a small child and not a toddler. I find I post about her less as she gets older; I'm starting to think about her privacy, as well as realizing she'll be able to read in a couple of years. There are a lot of vexing issues to think out about blogging about a person who qualifies as a full-fledged individual (this is why I very rarely talk about mr. flea).
We have achieved potty-training, fully and (I hope) finally. We're still rewarding poops in the potty (currently with seasonal jelly beans) but that will taper over time, I'm sure. She takes herself, and doesn't need help, though she does call for approval and inspection after the process is over.
We met with Miss Monique, the lead teacher in Casper's new class at school, this morning. I liked her, and I think she has some good points about encouraging independence, allowing the kids to make choices (they can choose not to eat snack, for example.) Casper has been handling this transition really well; she was clearly ready, and having several of her friends in the class makes it easier. This will probably be her last classroom, as if we are still here in August we will leave the center for public school.
We went to the park yesterday after coming home on the bus, and Casper was rather shy with the kids there. We haven't spent enough time with the neighborhood kids lately for her to really remember and feel comfortable with them, and they with her (even Maya and Alexa). I hope the spring will lead to more 4:30-5:30 playtimes, since she will be in school with many of these kids next fall. After tentative approaches by Casper to packs of kids, and returns to me saying "nobody wants to play with me," a friend from school whom we've never seen at the park arrived, and they ran to each other's arms and hugged and played together until the need for a potty took us home. It's interesting to see how trends in different social sets play out at the 3 year old level - at Casper's school the girls are very into princesses and wearing dresses and sparkly shoes from Target, while the neighborhood girls are more in jeans and t-shirts. Dunno how they feel about princesses. Yesterday Casper was in her favorite pink dress and sparkly shoes, but today she's in corduroys and a turtleneck; we try to keep her flexible.
Casper's still going to bed waaaaay too late for my wishes; we start bedtime routine by 8-8:15, and she's usually not asleep until 9:30 or later. We read 3 books, have a cup of milk, listen to a CD (generally Abiyoyo) and then lie quietly, or not so quietly. One of us always lies down with her, usually mr. flea, and often enough sleeps the whole night with her. I have started waking her up before I leave in the mornings, at 7 or so. She had been sleeping until 8 at least, so I hope that rising earlier will mean an earlier bedtime. The goal of the CD was so that she'd fall asleep during it, and eventually we could move to starting the CD and leaving her to listen by herself and eventually fall asleep, but right now she's just not tired enough.
Physically, she looks older and older. She's wearing 4-5 in clothes, mostly, 100 in Hannas, size 11 shoe. She seems tall and slender but pretty muscular. I especially notice the muscles in her legs (when she does her interpretive dances) - she has well-defined quads and hamstrings.
She doesn't show a lot of pre-reading signs right now. She doesn't recognize numbers or letters; we haven't pushed teaching them, but I know they do a little at school. She will say "buh buh baby," as if she's sounding out words, but she has trouble recognizing what sounds start what words - she can't identify another B word. We have Candyland and Chutes and Ladders, but she doesn't like to play for very long. She'd rather take the pieces and make up stories and games. She builds elaborate set-ups with her animals and dolls and toys, taking over entire rooms of the house that are loaded with what mr. flea calls "toy bombs" - things arranged elaborately and just so, so if you touch, move, or otherwise disturb them, she gets very angry and upset.
She's a nice kid. I think we'll keep her.
We have achieved potty-training, fully and (I hope) finally. We're still rewarding poops in the potty (currently with seasonal jelly beans) but that will taper over time, I'm sure. She takes herself, and doesn't need help, though she does call for approval and inspection after the process is over.
We met with Miss Monique, the lead teacher in Casper's new class at school, this morning. I liked her, and I think she has some good points about encouraging independence, allowing the kids to make choices (they can choose not to eat snack, for example.) Casper has been handling this transition really well; she was clearly ready, and having several of her friends in the class makes it easier. This will probably be her last classroom, as if we are still here in August we will leave the center for public school.
We went to the park yesterday after coming home on the bus, and Casper was rather shy with the kids there. We haven't spent enough time with the neighborhood kids lately for her to really remember and feel comfortable with them, and they with her (even Maya and Alexa). I hope the spring will lead to more 4:30-5:30 playtimes, since she will be in school with many of these kids next fall. After tentative approaches by Casper to packs of kids, and returns to me saying "nobody wants to play with me," a friend from school whom we've never seen at the park arrived, and they ran to each other's arms and hugged and played together until the need for a potty took us home. It's interesting to see how trends in different social sets play out at the 3 year old level - at Casper's school the girls are very into princesses and wearing dresses and sparkly shoes from Target, while the neighborhood girls are more in jeans and t-shirts. Dunno how they feel about princesses. Yesterday Casper was in her favorite pink dress and sparkly shoes, but today she's in corduroys and a turtleneck; we try to keep her flexible.
Casper's still going to bed waaaaay too late for my wishes; we start bedtime routine by 8-8:15, and she's usually not asleep until 9:30 or later. We read 3 books, have a cup of milk, listen to a CD (generally Abiyoyo) and then lie quietly, or not so quietly. One of us always lies down with her, usually mr. flea, and often enough sleeps the whole night with her. I have started waking her up before I leave in the mornings, at 7 or so. She had been sleeping until 8 at least, so I hope that rising earlier will mean an earlier bedtime. The goal of the CD was so that she'd fall asleep during it, and eventually we could move to starting the CD and leaving her to listen by herself and eventually fall asleep, but right now she's just not tired enough.
Physically, she looks older and older. She's wearing 4-5 in clothes, mostly, 100 in Hannas, size 11 shoe. She seems tall and slender but pretty muscular. I especially notice the muscles in her legs (when she does her interpretive dances) - she has well-defined quads and hamstrings.
She doesn't show a lot of pre-reading signs right now. She doesn't recognize numbers or letters; we haven't pushed teaching them, but I know they do a little at school. She will say "buh buh baby," as if she's sounding out words, but she has trouble recognizing what sounds start what words - she can't identify another B word. We have Candyland and Chutes and Ladders, but she doesn't like to play for very long. She'd rather take the pieces and make up stories and games. She builds elaborate set-ups with her animals and dolls and toys, taking over entire rooms of the house that are loaded with what mr. flea calls "toy bombs" - things arranged elaborately and just so, so if you touch, move, or otherwise disturb them, she gets very angry and upset.
She's a nice kid. I think we'll keep her.