Lots of leap pad ed happening here today. I really resisted buying LP for ages cos I hated the advert where the parents are hiding round the corner watching the little girl reading and going ‘look she’s reading, shush, don’t disturb her’ WHAT?! But we now have two – the littlies one cos it has a Dora book and the standard one. I really think LP is poorly marketed in terms of its huge educational value as a resource, or perhaps they don’t want to focus on that as it would not be percieved as ‘fun’ or ‘a toy’ if they sold it that way. Whatever Davies has a fair old library of the books now and he spent some time on the Lion King one (a bit over his head really as he has not seen the film, but reminiscent enough of the Jungle Book production we saw at the weekend to strike a chord with him) and then he took it to bed and played with the microphone and book about the circus. I think now he is starting to get a basis of phonics and stringing sounds together from 100EL (which I didn’t bother with tonight in favour of leaving him to play with LP so I could have a bath!) it will be even more educational for him.
We did Sainsburys, came home and I was in the middle of trying to put the shopping away, talk to Julie (SIL) on the phone (missing each other lots after week away at Melrose last week and current enforced pox seperation! Almost arranged to sneak out and see each other without children 😉 ) and chase the kids away from coming in and ‘raaaaahhh’ ing at me while on the phone when my Dad arrived. He stayed for lunch and most of the afternoon which put pay to my plan for calendar activity all afternoon and as Davies was doing his usual attention seeking thing of talking over us constantly every time one of us spoke I set the kids up with some play dough including the new bits and pieces I got from ELC which went down well.
Dad left and I got them to help tidy up and then got out a roll of paper and the pens and set about doing a very basic timeline. It starts at 1938 with Grandad was born and takes in Granny was born, Daddy was born, Daddy started school, Granny and Grandad got married, Mummy was born, Mummy started school, Mummy and Daddy met, Mummy and Daddy bought this house, got married, Davies was born, moved to Manchester, Scarlett was born, moved back to this house, their last birthdays and ends with today. I will take a picture at some point but it is very rough still atm, I want to add some pictures of events and other visual aids as well as letting them do some interpretations.
Next I did a list of all the months with the seasons written above to show the different ways of splitting a year and under each month put something which happens in that month every year (like birthdays, Christmas etc), finally we did a calendar of this month and I showed Davies how the days of the week are repeated within the month and we wrote in what we have done so far each day this month and he drew some pictures on it. Next stage is to break down a month into weeks, then days and then break down a day into morning, afternoon and evening, then hours, then minutes. This will take place over weeks I imagine rather than in one big hit. I think I have finally realised that there is only value in this sort of activity if Davies is a) enjoying it and b) participating in it so we’ll see where tomorrow takes us (if anywhere) with it.
Scarlett has had another couple of truly dreadful nights – last night she watched Desperate Housewives (both episodes!) with me before I went to bed and Ady came down and sat with her. I don’t think any sort of full on sleep programme really suits us or our style of parenting but I do think that we need more than a two hour window between Davies falling asleep and Scarlett waking up again, and we need our bed to ourselves for at least a portion of the night too 🙁 Undecided on how to move forward but aware that we probably need to take some action. As ever it’s the same problem with more than one child that if it was just her it would be easier to either deal with and put up with a couple of really bad nights, or let it ride and sleep in with her in the mornings but as Davies has a fairly good sleeping pattern which I would rather be in sync with it is not really an option.
Anyway, no spots here as yet, no signs of any other Melrose related ills which means I think we are out of incubation for anything other than CP now. I’m torn now between almost hoping to spot spots on them to a) get it over with and b) justify the staying in all week and dreading them incase of complications and dealing with mutilating child Scarlett and her desperate urge to pick if she gets itchy spots all over herself. Sigh, only another two weeks or so :-(, unless of course one gets them in which case I will have to wait even longer before being sure the other won’t…
We also hummed and haaed about leappad, but got the bigger one for DD for xmas from my parents, and an ebay frenzy has given us now a huge number to dole out as and when. Going to try this one for her birthday
as with postage was still not bad, and hopefully will get a lot of use. there is another one on ebay at the moment.
Fancy the microphone add on, but am having a shopping free time now that we have bought a house for 8 arms and 8 legs!
Comment by helen and chris F — 17 February 2005 @ 10:40 pm
Well, I hate leap pads. We had one, the kids really didn’t like it or want to use it, I’d bought it thinking of the car, and it made them feel sick, so Marcus and Alex are having full use of it now! I’m sure they’re great really, I seem to be in a minority here, but never mind, eh?
Comment by Sarah — 17 February 2005 @ 10:56 pm
I wasn’t really too sure either but decided to get it but MIL got it for LC for Christmas anyway. However, it helps me to understand what LC knows as she will happily listen to what the voices are saying and carry out the instructions so I can see what she understands – as she doesn’t talk as you all know. Your time thing is a great idea Nic and I am nicking it OK!!!
Comment by Karen b — 17 February 2005 @ 11:03 pm
well, i was with you there sarah before we got it. i do do it interactively with elinor, and she often asks me to say the words as she prefers my voice! so perhaps not alot differnt than a standard book. however, i think as she gets into it, it could be a good resource – even if i mess up on buying german ones! My missing link in my comment was to 10 phonics books sold as a pack
Comment by helen and chris F — 17 February 2005 @ 11:37 pm
Like your family timeline thing a lot. Might have to nick that to add to our “Us” file one day 🙂
Comment by Alison — 18 February 2005 @ 12:04 am
I have a love hate relationship with it (and indeed all leapfrog products, except the globe, which I do love). They sit untouched for months, but the minute I go to sell them, they become toy of the week, and get played with every day, and I warm to them again.
Comment by Joyce — 18 February 2005 @ 1:52 pm