Monday, November 24, 2014

8 Weeks Old Early Learning Program

8 Weeks Old Early Learning Program
The two week fruit program!

November 16-23, 2014

Age: 8 weeks old
Curriculum: early learning / infant stimulation program outlined in How Smart is Your Baby by Glenn Doman.

8 Weeks Old Early Learning Program
Our learning activities

Last week was a bit of a pitiful week for our early learning program, but this week was a great deal more productive and fun.

8 Weeks Old Early Learning Program
Fruits we used for first week

We are now doing the activities for stage 3, "intermediate phase", which is the
ten-daytwo-week fruit program (I changed it to two weeks because what kind of random number is a week and three days?)

The fruits we used for our first week were:
  • grapes
  • apple
  • banana
  • kiwi
  • pear
  • mandarin
  • persimmon
8 Weeks Old Early Learning Program
How to do the fruit program

Basically, the point of the "fruit program" is to stimulate all five of your baby's senses (all the pathways to the brain) and to introduce the concept of many ways to represent and experience one object.

For example, the concept "pear" and how it is a sound (a spoken word), an actual object that can be felt and tasted and smelled, a two-dimensional picture, and also a written word.

8 Weeks Old Early Learning Program
Our whole family tried a new fruit, and discovered that we liked it!

It was a really fun week for us! It was so fun to see her reaction to the smells and tastes especially. She really enjoyed tasting the fruit, even though it was only a teeny, tiny, minuscule amount (I just touched a piece of cut fruit to the tip of her tongue for about 3-5 seconds).

She quickly got to the point where she would anticipate me giving her a taste of the fruit and would start sticking her tongue in and out. It was so cute.

It was a little difficult to get her to look at the picture and the word, because she was more interested in looking at my face! So I had to hide behind the picture or hold the picture off to the side in order for her to be interested in looking at it.

8 Weeks Old Early Learning Program
Looking at stage 3 (initial phase) visual stimulation cards

She looked at her stage 3 visual stimulation cards a bit from last week.

8 Weeks Old Early Learning Program
Story time with big brothers

We've been doing story time a little bit more often this week. I'll admit I've been somewhat slacking in this department with her.

8 Weeks Old Early Learning Program
Holding her head up high

She's been holding her head up really high lately. Pretty much at a perfect 90 degree angle.

8 Weeks Old Early Learning Program
Waking up and looking around

When she wakes up in the morning she loves to look around. She really, really enjoys and prefers to be on her stomach.

8 Weeks Old Early Learning Program
Playing with Mommy

She's also been doing this thing where when you hold her up in the air she will completely straighten her body to where it is parallel to the ground. The top picture doesn't show it very well because her legs are a bit more relaxed in the above picture than when she does this.

8 Weeks Old Early Learning Program
Moving in her sleep

One interesting thing I've noticed lately is how much she moves in her sleep. She is a tummy sleeper and will often move quite a bit as she sleeps. She will turn her head side to side, shift her legs and arms, arch her back, and more while she is sleeping and it results in her moving sometimes several feet as she sleeps.

8 Weeks Old Early Learning Program
Napping (and moving) in her track

Here is another example. The above picture was from a short nap in her crawling track. As you can see, her head started out by the trumpet and ended up down by the sea turtle.

8 Weeks Old Early Learning Program
She scooted all the way to the end of the track this week

And, milestone alert! She scooted all the way to the end of the track this week. Yay!

This was really a giant leap for her, as previously the longest she ever really scooted was maybe about two feet before she would grow tired of being in the track.

Now all of the sudden she is scooting the entire six-foot long track in about three minutes, and she would probably scoot more if the track were longer!

Just when I was wondering when she would achieve this milestone (her brother was scooting the length of the track around seven weeks), she decided to do it so suddenly and with such rapid speed and efficiency. I love it when babies surprise us like this!

8 Weeks Old Early Learning Program
Sitting up

Another thing I noticed lately is that she is starting to sit up pretty much on her own, if she is on the right surface. Like in the above picture, when she is sitting between my legs she will sit unsupported for quite a long time.

My legs create a sort of indention in the mattress so it helps her not lean over too far.

8 Weeks Old Early Learning Program
Two months old

Baby girl turned two months old at the end of this week!

Resources Used:

Free Infant Stimulation Kit for Glenn Doman "How Smart is Your Baby" Program

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