Meal time

It's the dark time of the year, and we have a lot more inside time lately.

Otso: 4 Years, 1 Month

Summary

Not too much has changed since last month. Toward the latter half of the month, he has ramped up the physical play -- ping pong and floorball are favorites.

Learning/Development

We still have the stroller, and we typically use it for getting to Perheliikunta (his gymnastics class). 

His teacher says he is strong in math for his age and has a good grasp on manipulating the numbers 0-9, and also understanding odd and even.

Language

He sometimes struggles to remember the English word, and he is clearly more comfortable expressing himself in Finnish.

He still has trouble with the "tr" or "thr" sound in English. And it has a great effect now that his default is a big, rolling Finnish "r" sound, so "three" becomes "frrrrrree". And "Uncle Troy" becomes "Uncle Frrrrrroy".

Toys/Games/Other

When he comes home, he usually immediately heads for the Lego box.

He was captivated by watching ping pong at the sports center, so we got a couple paddles and balls. He also got some floorball equipment for his birthday and he is thrilled.

We sat in on a music class for Lumi. He was very interested, and liked singing along. He also liked the djembe, and was able to follow along and play the rhythm the teacher did.

Social

He has his best friend at päiväkoti but the teachers say he is also flexible about playing with other kids, and he is not afraid to approach other kids and ask to play.

Eating

He is a pretty good eater.

Favorites: cooked carrots, roasted meat.

He is into adding things to his bowl of Cheerios : raisins, cashews, shredded coconut. 

Sleeping

He usually wants us to stay in his bedroom while he tries to go to sleep at night, but it can easily take 30 minutes or more.

Health

We did his 4-year neuvola checkup on 15.11. He is doing great, and perfectly average for height, weight, and head circumference. He said the shot didn't hurt.

Events

21.10 birthday visit to HopLop

25.10 syysrieha at Suursuo päiväkoti

29.10 Eeli's Halloween party

9.11 isänpäivä breakfast at päiväkoti

10-12.11 weekend in Nakkila

15.11 4-year neuvola check up

19.11 perhesähly (floorball) 

Random

15.11 he had a great time at the neuvola 4 year check up. He did the eye check and drew pictures and used scissors and threw a ball and chatted and had a vaccination (with a blue monkey band-aid). Afterward, Kimmo asked "What was your favorite part? The drawing? The cutting?" Otso answered "The vaccination!" 

Evening snacks

Lumi: 6 Years, 9 Months

Summary

This month, the reading is really making a big jump. It's amazing to see. 

Social

She cares more about how she looks now. She decided to go to a professional for her big haircut because 'I want it to look cool.' 

One fun thing about living where we live is that it is easier to casually meet up to play. She has one close friend who drops by a couple of times a week. 

Leisure

She likes role play games, and also gymnastics. She is increasingly interested in small toys, and wants specific branded toys for Christmas. 

Vaari let her drive the boat on the lake, and she loved doing doughnuts, riding over he own wake. 

We're expanding the reading a bit -- books from the Secret Kingdom series by Rosie Banks, and we started the first Harry Potter and also Prince Caspian. 

Learning

She really enjoys worksheets and games. She is also writing a lot (in Finnish). She likes to write messages on the magnetic drawing toys, and write out the answers to our questions instead of speaking them aloud.

Her reading is taking off. She can handle reading most Finnish "normal" words, though the long compound words are difficult. 

Even her English reading is improving! She can go through these early reader books with some help. She is often frustrated because of course these books do not have very interesting plots. 

Now we are working on reading comprehension. In Otso's birthday package, Veera and Elsa sent along some books that have simple text and also questions about the plot at the end. She does not respond well to me simply quizzing her about other books (I need to work on my delivery I guess so it doesn't sound so judgemental) but since these questions are actually part of the book, she accepts them and we talk about it. 

Language

Her English is still probably strongest, but the Finnish is definitely getting stronger by the day. Especially when discussing things that she does at eskari, the Finnish comes easily. She is still leading her brother along in English at home.

Food

She still hates soup, but apparently does eat it at eskari. 

She likes sandwiches and lots of other things, though. She can fix herself a slice of bread with butter and peanut butter on it.

Health

She is better than ever about sleeping in on the weekends. She probably does not get quite enough sleep on most week days (there is a nap time / rest time at preschool but the teachers also read a book aloud during that time and she claims she is too interested in the story to sleep then).

Events

11.10 haircut! She has a cute bob.

13—15.10 weekend at the mökki with vaari

18-20.10 fall break ; Mummu came to stay with the kids during the day

21.10 HopLop

22.10 Hilla and August visiting for dinner

25.10 syysrieha at Suursuo Päiväkoti 

1.11 Valojuhla at eskari