Gumby's World: 2/12/2011-2/28/2011

The Gumby's World series is a journal of how we spend our days with Gumby :)

Two weeks ago was exciting as we had a glimpse of the spring weather that is soon to come! 

It was also exciting because Gumby's vocabulary and thirst for knowledge just continues to swell right in front of our very eyes.  She has picked up "Yep!" and "Nope!" from I'm not sure where, but it is so cute.  And, she is asking all sorts of questions that she has never asked before.  She wants to know where everybody goes and what they are doing.  She notices background noises and asks what it is.  In the car, when we arrive at our destination she asks "Where you gonna park, mamma?"  She is always so inquistive and eager to learn about her environment.

We took advantage of the warm weather and spent lots of time outside.

Gumby couldn't wait to take her love for art back to the outdoors on the front porch with her chalk!

We also spent the better parts of  several days out and about!

Gumby has been big into going to the library again.  She likes to play the computer games with me.  There are a few that she likes to use the mouse or keyboard for, but a lot of them she points or tells me what to click on.  There is one where you can play music to put animals to sleep, feed them or play with them and she thinks it's hilarious.  Sometimes, the music makes them dance and she yells "Don't do the jig, go to sleep!" :)

The library has these foam fishes that we've been sorting and putting together by color.  Over the summer we made choo-choo's out of the fish, as in the photo, but the color sorting was new.  She took it very seriously.  I think it's important to remember that in the eyes of children, their play is just as serious as any work us adults undertake.

Gumby almost always helps me clean up.  It is her choice and she rarely refuses.  But, on the times that she does, I am okay with it.  Surely, there are times she asks me to do things and I refuse.  Autonomy is a basic human need, important to those who are both big and small, old and young.  I want her to help me and others, not because of a threat of punishment or consequences nor because of a promise of a reward or bribe, but because she truely wants to, because the motivation comes from within her.  For that to be the case, it always has to be her choice, her decision.

We met Deeda for lunch at the park and then stayed to play.  Her and Deeda just love being barefoot.  They are talking me into it.  There is a lot of sensory experiences to be had when your feet are bare which is probably why Gumby and most other children enjoy it so much.

She played on 2 different play grounds, climbed, went down slides and rode this duck.  There is also a quarter mile track that surrounds the local highschool football field.  I think it's a quarter of a mile all the way around it.  She walked just about the entire track!

We took Gumby bowling for the second time, this time to a bowling alley that has these ball ramps that the ball can be placed on and toddlers can give them a shove to get them down the lane.  Gumby enjoyed this.  We explored a toy store that had wooden toys out to be played with, played in the mall play area, and went to the book store. 

We brought home a 3' by 2' floor puzzle which is really neat and lots of fun.

At home we did molding with her model magic foam/clay, colored, read books, read her new purchased and library books and played with the nanobugs and iPad. 

While reading, she started pointing at the words in the book and saying the letters.  She knows most of the letters, lower and upper case.  Chica Chica ABC has been a great book for showing lowercase letters in very large print and she likes to name them as they go up the coconut tree in the story.

Another new thing she has started doing is wanting to hold hands when we are out and about <3  And, wanting to walk from the parking lots to the store (holding hands required here of course!).

As the weather got colder, we spent less time outside!  Gumby is not big on cold weather.  She only likes to play outside in the cold occassionally.  When we woke up to about 8 inches of snow, she wanted go to outside to see it, did not want to walk in it, and wanted to sled ride with Mamma ... once.  That was it :) 

When the temperatures get more around the mid 30's and higher though, she likes walking in the show paths that Deeda shovels for her and making "paw prints" <3

We are still thinking spring and took a little sneak peak at the sandbox and added a few snow sculptures to it :)

Gumby and I spend our days immersed in play.  She is constantly learning what she wants, when she wants and how she wants without having to separate life experiences into subjects or play time versus learning time.  It is all intermingled, inseparable and fun.  We follow her interests wherever they lead and encourage her to explore her world.  It is impossible to go through life, even one day, and not learn something - try it!  All learning is valuable.  Life is learning.

Gumby's World: 2/5/2011-2/11/2011

The Gumby's World series is a journal of how we spend our days with Gumby :)

This past weekend, we went out and about with Gumby.  We had lunch at our favorite fast food Italian restaraunt with a good friend.  Gumby loves going out to eat.  We take her puzzles, coloring supplies and the iPad.  When we travel, we put her little potty on the back seat of the car.  It works just fine for potty breaks on the go!

Gumby got a couple of new toys.  One is a 18" tower with a funnel/spout that sand, water, rice and who knows what else can be poured into to make 2 wheels turn.  This led way to a renewed interest in the rice box.  

The other toy is a set of huge foam letters and numbers.  It is also a puzzle.  She has a lot of fun building, unbuilding, running, walking and romping on it.  I will admit - it is a very fun activity for Mamma too :)

Gumby mailed the Valentine's Day cards that she made last week for her Grandparents.  She was so excited.  She wanted to watch the episode of Special Agent Oso where he also mails a letter to a little girls Grandmother.  She really enjoys tieing shows into what she is actually doing. 

We made two trips to the library to play on the computer and with the large bead toys.  She is enjoying learning to use the mouse and is getting better at controlling it.  There are coloring games, bubble popping games and puzzles.  The puzzles need the most precise mouse control to select a piece then place it in the proper location.  It is nice because no button clicks are neccessary.

We played on the iPad, Cover Orange, of course.  She knows how to place pieces, which pieces roll, which ones do not roll, how to bump an Orange on one side and cause it to move, how to bump bombs and make them move pieces into place and more.  Along with hand eye coordination, cause and effect and basic physics concepts, the game is also building her vocabulary and her confidence. 

Gumby made several finger paintings this week.  We displayed them in the living room and kitchen.  The top one is done with brushes and sponges, with one hand print in the top left corner.  The bottom one is a more rare one done with her fingers.  She really loves using tools to paint; the ones where she puts her fingers and hands in it are always extra special. 

She has a kid's table that has letters and numbers embossed along the edges that can be rubbed over with crayons to make the letters on the paper.  She really enjoys this.  She names off the letters as she sees them appear.  Thanks to her Grammie and Grandpa for this table that used to be mine when I was little. 

We had loads of fun with her Nano HexBugs that she got for Christmas.  We built them a habitat out of blocks and gave them a paper towel roll tunnel.  These are awesome toys and have staying power.  They are always fun and there is always a new way to play and learn with them.

Gumby and I spend our days immersed in play.  She is constantly learning what she wants, when she wants and how she wants without having to separate life experiences into subjects or play time versus learning time.  It is all intermingled, inseparable and fun.  We follow her interests wherever they lead and encourage her to explore her world.  It is impossible to go through life, even one day, and not learn something - try it!  All learning is valuable.  Life is learning.

Gumby's World: 1/29/2011-2/4/2011

The Gumby's World series is a journal of how we spend our days with Gumby :)

This past week I re-organized Gumby's toy shelves by putting away things that she is not using and making what she does use (or would if she could easily get to it) more accessible.  Gumby now has a new space for arts and crafts that is within her reach.  It is still a little cluttered, but I hope to also be able to rotate some of the items to keep it new and interesting. 

We also got a large plastic flower shaped plate to hold current projects and/or new items.

The rearranging resulted in a re-discovery of forgotten music items such as music shakers, piano and drums.  We have been having fun making music and dancing! Putting her markers, crayons, glitter, window crayons, paper and coloring books where she can get to them has renewed her interest in art.  This week we colored, drew - she is refining her own Mickey Mouse drawing - and created Valentine's Day cards for family members.

Gumby's Mee Mou (Mickey Mouse), drawn by herself

We read books, built jigsaw puzzles, played with her Potato Heads, buried each other and built with pillows, played ball with her huge 24" ball (she kept laughing if we would bounce it on her head), ran around the island ... all favorite actives of hers!  She was also able to get to her rubber ducks easier so we sorted them into squeaking and non-squeaking kinds. 

Gumby also loves cooking and has since she was 7-8 months old or so.  She loves mixing, dumping, pouring and tasting.  This past week she helped me to make veggie paella, home made spaghetti sauce, veggie enchiladas and cookies. This time, she noticed the ingredients on the box of cookies showed that we needed eggs and water.

Another new and exciting thing she did was correctly read a book out loud to herself.  I know she probably has the story memorized and is describing the pictures, but it was both accurate, adorable and exciting!

The book Gumby read aloud to herself

Gumby loves having the TV on with either Mickey Mouse or Special Agent Oso, usually for company, background noise or ideas.  Sometimes, I worry about having the TV on all of the time, but looking through this list of what we did last week, I guess we do things!

We definitely are not opposed to technology, Deeda and I both having degrees in Computer Science and we always partake in technology together.  As such, Gumby is quite proficient at working our touch screen cell phones, Wii, and iPad.  Her favorite thing to do on the phones is a sliding puzzle of Mickey and company.  Who else? :)  On the Wii, she likes to ski, race cars and shoot targets.  Usually she watches myself or Deeda play, but sometimes will play herself.  She does know how to take games out, put them back into the case, get a new game out of the case and load it into the Wii. 

Skiing on Wii with Mamma

On the iPad, she enjoys cooking food and rearranging furniture in a restaurant, puzzles, drawing, coloring, hopping frogs or just about anything else.  Lately, her favorite game is this physics strategy/puzzle game called Cover Orange. 

 

Gumby Enjoying Cover Orange on the iPad with Deeda

Gumby and I spend our days immersed in play.  She is constantly learning what she wants, when she wants and how she wants without having to separate life experiences into subjects or play time versus learning time.  It is all intermingled, inseparable and fun.  We follow her interests wherever they lead and encourage her to explore her world.  It is impossible to go through life, even one day, and not learn something - try it!  All learning is valuable.  Life is learning.