I want to briefly note a milestone that happened yesterday that had me clapping my hands and hugging Ruby with joy.
She was interested in some words (on the cover of the ever-present Map Book). After reminding her that M-A-P spells map, she asked about the word “book”. I suggested she try sounding it out, never thinking that would actually work.
And yet, she did. “Buh, ooh, ooh, kuh. Boo coo boo coo. BOOK!”
Ruby has a placemat with a world map on it, and after every meal is over, she pushes aside her dishes and says, “let’s talk about countries!” As a map lover, I can’t resist this entreaty. She started by pointing at the very largest countries and asking me what they were called. Soon she was also interested in medium-sized countries as well, and I realized she now knows a LOT of countries’ names, so I made a list.
When I point at the following countries, she can name them (these are the ones she knows best): Russia, Madagascar, Australia, Mongolia, South Africa, Brazil, Argentina, Greenland, Canada, United States, Antarctica, China, Mexico, Bolivia, France, Norway, Papua New Guinea.
When I ask her to point to these countries, she can (these are the ones she’s learned more recently): India, Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Finland.
That makes 21 countries! There are other countries she’s just now learning where she knows the name but can’t reliably find them on the map (England, Germany, New Zealand, Singapore).
I swear I’m not pushing this on her; she’s as naturally interested in maps as I am. And I’ll add that she can identify most of these countries on other maps that have different colors. I’m amazed. Is this normal?
This morning, I did the alphabet puzzle with Ruby and she named all the letters, no problem. For most of the letters, she asked me what it was “for” (meaning, what words start with that letter). She’s starting to remember these as well. The first one she remembered and repeated later was T for Tripping (from her hockey alphabet book). The second was D for Doughnuts (from the doughnuts we had in Hawaii).
Today Ruby and I did the letter puzzle (described earlier), and there was only one letter (C) that she couldn’t name! She’s very interested in letters now and points them out often.
For Christmas, we gave Ruby a doll. We didn’t give the doll a name, but instead decided to wait and let Ruby choose the name.
Ruby didn’t quite understand what we were asking for when we said, “What’s your friend’s name?”. She’d usually say “hmm?” or “name-o” (as in “bingo was his”). So for the past few months her doll’s name has been “friend” or “your friend”. Every few weeks we’d ask again and we’d get the same response.
Last week while we were in Hawaii, the mother of one of our PEPS friends did some babysitting while Ruby and I went snorkeling. She took Ruby to see a fire station and later, when we were all driving home, she asked Ruby if she remembered the name of the station.
“Manoa!” was Ruby’s response. She seemed to enjoy the word and repeated it a few times.
Sensing an opportunity, I said, “Ruby, what’s your friend’s name?”
“Manoa!” she replied!
We’ve asked a few more times since then, and the name has stuck. I’m not sure why, but I get a little choked at the thought of her finally giving her friend her name.
We’re currently in Hawaii with Ruby, and in preparation for the long plane ride, I bought some toys and activities to keep her occupied. So far, the best in terms of time spent and value has been the Lauri Primer Pak:
It is packed full of absorbing activities and only cost me about $15. I haven’t even given all of these things to Ruby yet! So far, we’ve gotten the most use out of the alphabet puzzle. It’s really helping her learn all the letters, and as of today I think there are only 3 or 4 letters whose names she forgets. We play a game where I remove all the letters and put them in a bag, then pull one out randomly. She names it (if she can), and then puts it in the puzzle. It’s fun to watch her learn and get faster.
I should mention that this is a game that she enjoys and asks to play. We play a game where I take all the letters out of the puzzle and put them in a bag, then randomly pull one out. She names it (if she can), and then puts it in the puzzle. It’s been fun to watch her get better and faster at it each time. Afterwards, she usually asks me to spell words for her, so I show her short words with no duplicate letters such as RUBY, CAT, RUN, and MAP (which she remembered from before).
In late December, we took Ruby sledding. Although she liked being out in the snow, she hated the sledding. Seeing anyone sliding down the hill upset her, and of course she didn’t want a turn.
Beginning on the car ride home, though, we engaged in some revisionism and began talking about how much FUN it was. Didn’t you have a really great time sledding, Ruby? Remember when we went sledding down the hill and it was so much fun? We kept this up for a few days until she firmly remembered it differently than it had actually happened.
It was another month and a half before we went sledding again (not counting a failed attempt where I forgot our gear). This time, Ruby was excited and not at all apprehensive. Even so, we were surprised by how brave she was. Not only would she ride down the hill with us, but by the end she was happily sledding all by herself! Even falling off at the bottom didn’t deter her. See for yourself:
Due to her small size, she went faster and farther than we did on the sled, and it also made walking back up the hill much easier (since she could walk on top of the snow crust, while we sunk deeply in). All in all, it really WAS fun the second time around.
Today, while Ruby was in the bath, I was reading a magazine (Wondertime). She happened to look at a page with a big advertisement and said, “brown! boy!” It was a picture of a boy with brown hair. I wasn’t surprised that she got the color right, but found it interesting that she was able to identify that it was a picture of a boy. I didn’t realize she had already picked up on that distinction.
So, I paged through the magazine and, for every picture of a child (baby through about 7), I asked her if it was a boy or a girl. She was correct more often than not. I noticed that for more androgynous kids (usually babies), she was likely to say they were a girl. Most of the more obvious (to me) ones she got wrong were long-haired girls. Later, I looked through the pictures a few times and tried to discern a pattern, but I couldn’t.
We’ve raised her, so far, without obvious gender cues like wearing pink. I tend to refer to other children as a “kid” rather than a “boy” or a “girl.” And yet she’s still managed to crack the code of who is a boy and who is a girl, without much help from her parents. It’s pretty amazing.
Ruby has started to ask about the timing of things we do regularly, such as going to the play center or her grandparents’ house. I tell her “we’ll go to the library in three days,” but I’m not sure how well she understands this. She’s obviously interested in the concept, though, so I came up with a way to communicate it more clearly.
I took a big whiteboard and drew seven columns on it. I put the name of each day at the top of each column, and added a marker for TODAY. Then, I printed out a ton of pictures and labels for things we do regularly, laminated them, and taped them onto the days in chronological order (breakfast first, bedtime last, etc.). Ruby can easily see which days Steve is at work, how many days until we go to Ultimate Frisbee, or who is coming over today after naptime.
She has been fascinated by the board so far, probably because all the pictures are of familiar things. I’m working on another set of pictures for things/people we don’t see every week but who I can add in when a visit is planned. Tomorrow, we’re going to see salmon at Carkeek Park, so I cut out a salmon picture and taped it on. I can even just draw something in with a dry erase marker if it’s a one-time event.
It’s a work in progress, and I’m not sure how long I’ll keep it up. But for now, I feel like Ruby is learning a lot about the concept of time.
I was watching Ruby play at the play center today and noticed two new skills:
1. She can make the cars go forward (Fred Flintstone style) as well as backward.
2. She has started using pronouns, and correctly too. I heard her say “I found it” about a toy and wondered how long she’s understood the concept.