Autumn Updates

So now that we're back on an even keel (and, thank god, we are), I should do a couple of updates on everything.

I have two big life improvement projects this autumn.  One is food, and that will require a post of its own sometime.  The other is to ditch the stroller (I know, I should say 'pushchair'; it's one of the Americanisms that we've adopted).  I am a firm believer in the rule of thumb that a child can walk a mile for every year of its age (although I'm a bit fuzzy on where you stop), and so, now that it's not too hot to carry my daughter if she does get tired, we are going on excursions sans buggy--with a very few exceptions for all day trips.

This also means I don't have a stroller to load up with paraphernalia, so I'm trying to cut down on what we take with us.  There goes the nappy bag, too!  I've reverted to my usual handbag, which in previous years was sized to hold my wallet, phone and a paperback book.  Now it holds my wallet, phone, nappy (or two) and a pack of wipes.  And that's it!

In practice, I quite often take the camera bag with me as well, so I am lugging that around, but for the most part it's bliss to just walk around the zoo, or the botanical gardens, or the playground without having to look for ramps or find a place to park the stroller.  I feel liberated!

It's a relief in many other ways.  One of the mistakes I made when my daughter first started walking was to let my three year old son get into the stroller when she wasn't in it.  Suddenly, riding in the stroller became a coveted position by both children and they started fighting over it.  With the stroller gone, they don't worry about it.

It's going to be an ongoing thing to build my daughter's stamina up, but I've been trying to get out alone with her twice a week for a little walk at her pace, and the cooler weather here has meant that we've been spending almost every afternoon outside too, and I'm already seeing improvement. 

If she asks to be picked up, I try and encourage her to keep walking, distracting her if I can... but I don't push the issue further than that.  If I end up carrying her, I'll usually try and set her down again after a few dozen yards, usually at a change of path (i.e. at the start of a boardwalk, or by an offshoot trail) or when something particularly attractive comes into view.  Generally, that works.

As I said, she's already doing better.  This afternoon, we went for a walk around the Botanical Gardens, and although she had to be carried for a little way on the path back, I was able to set her down to 'climb' a tree, and then she walked the rest of the way.  She was clearly tired, because she was going so slowly, but she held my hand tightly and never once asked to be picked up.  I'm thrilled.  I can't wait to be able to do proper rambles with the children, exploring woods without having to always be 'in carrying distance' of home / the car. 

Also, one of the things we figured out while we were in the UK this year is that walks are one of the best ways of tiring your children out without tiring yourself out.  I find that if I take them to the playground, I get worn out before they do, but with walking it's the other way around.

Meanwhile, way back at the start of the year, I tried to figure out how I wanted my son to learn to read and what my role was in that.  He's still plugging away at the moveable alphabet at school, 'writing' words by sounding them out but has not made the leap to reading by the same method.  I've followed a variety of different activities to support his literacy, but what is currently working for us is to just look at the front cover of whatever book we're about to read and talk about the sounds in the title. 

Since he knows all the basic sounds, i.e. his letters, I'll usually point out a few letter combinations to him.  Mostly 'oo', 'ee', 'th', and 'ar'.  Also because he has a strong vowel in his name and a 'y' ending, I've explained to him that those letters can make two sounds (I've been saying that 'y' at the end of a word is usually an 'ee' sound). 

I'm trying not to require anything of him with this exercise, it's just a time that works for us to talk about this kind of stuff.  We spend a few seconds on the title, or one word in the title, before reading the book.  (We also talk about who wrote the words and who drew the pictures, and where the book came from, because he likes to know).

The other thing he's been doing lately is running his finger along the line of text in books he's memorised, or virtually memorised.  It's only a handful of books he's doing that with, but when he forgets what the words say, I'm trying to get him to look at the first letter of the word to know what sound it starts with and jog his memory.  That's not producing notable success, but I figure that any reminder to look at the individual letters is a good thing.

He recently found Where the Wild Things Are at Barnes and Noble and was greatly excited since he'd had it read to him several times at school.  For almost a week, that was the only book he wanted to read!  But he started drawing his finger across the title and saying the words, so I got him to find the 'W's for 'where' and 'wild' and the 'th's for 'the' and 'things' and the 'ar' for 'are'.  I'm not entirely convinced that he is spotting the letters, but he now says the correct word for where his finger is, and gleefully shouts 'Arrrr!' at the end.

So while there are still daily ups and downs, and various other "Well, bugger, I failed at that," moments, the past week has felt very much like constructive progress.  Hooray!