Monday, April 20, 2015

Week 29 Early Learning Program

Week 29 Early Learning Program
Aria getting ready to hang from a trapeze bar to help develop her hand muscles & upper body strength. She has a strong enough grip to hang freely for a few seconds.

April 12-19, 2014

Age: 29 weeks old (6.5 months old)

Curriculum: inspired by and based loosely on Glenn Doman's How to Multiply Your Baby's Intelligence and Fit Baby, Smart Baby, Your Baby.

Week 29 Early Learning Program
Looking at cloud types together

We had a lovely little week. Besides the fact that it was cloudy and rainy almost every day, which really put a damper on my spirits, it was a lot of fun watching Aria develop her knew skill of pulling to stand.

All week she has been pulling to stand on just about everything. Gone are the days where she mostly played on her stomach, and pivoting around or getting up on her hands and knees to crawl to a new destination to play on her stomach again.

Week 29 Early Learning Program
Aria pulling to stand on our step stool

Late last week, she started pulling herself up to a kneeling position. Then she started pulling herself up to stand in a very bent over way.

Week 29 Early Learning Program
Almost in a complete upright position

By the end of the week she had gotten to the point where she was almost completely upright. It's her preferred position lately. It seems like she just crawls around to find a new place to pull up on. It's so incredible what a week can do!

Week 29 Early Learning Program
Standing in crawling track

She most certainly, definitely does not use her crawling track to crawl in anymore. Last week she would sit in it and play. Now she is just so obsessed with standing all she will do in it is stand. She hasn't managed to climb out of it yet. But I suspect that is likely only days away.

Week 29 Early Learning Program
Playing on the window.

One of her favorite places is the window. I think that may have been one of her main motivations to learn to pull to stand - so she could see out the window. (And lick it. She really enjoys the feeling of her lips and tongue smearing across the cold window.)

Week 29 Early Learning Program
Won't lay still - crawling like crazy

Her crawling is getting to the point where she only crawls because she wants to find something new to pull to stand on.

Week 29 Early Learning Program
Crawling off bed into crawling track

Also, she has no fear of heights. She has multiple times went to crawl straight off the bed. I'm trying to let her learn, a little? I will let her crawl and "fall" into the crawling track. But it doesn't bother her at all, so I'm not sure she is leaning anything.

Week 29 Early Learning Program
Finger food

Aria has been eating a lot of finger food lately. We started with Gerber Puffs, Cheerios, and Rice Crispies. She just started solids less than a month ago and has no teeth, but she really does great with them. She pretty much just puts the food in her mouth and it dissolves.

Week 29 Early Learning Program
Working hard on the prehensile & pincer grasp

Starting finger foods early has the additional benefit of being a great tool for practicing the pincer grasp! It's a great daily fine motor workout for her.

Week 29 Early Learning Program
Our picture cards

Our picture cards this week were low altitude clouds & types of triangles. For math we did progressions of 7 (skip counting by 7) with randomized subitization quantity cards. And for written language immersion we had two sets of fruit words & pictures!

Our classical music piece this week was The Barber of Seville: Overture by Gioachino Rossini.

Week 29 Early Learning Program
Eating sand

It rained a lot this week, but we did manage to sneak in a photo session at the beach Saturday afternoon, before the storm hit. Aria was loving the sensory sensation of the sand, as usual.

Week 29 Early Learning Program
Aria loves swimming

Sunday we had another break from rain for a period in the afternoon, so we took the chance to go swimming.

Week 29 Early Learning Program
Blowing in face to help Aria learn to hold her breath

The last few swim sessions we have done, we had just been getting accustomed to the water. She is quite comfortable and happy in the pool now.

So I started teaching her to submerge in water and hold her breath, the first step in independent swimming. The technique I used is to hold her horizontal, rather than vertical. When you hold a baby vertically and dunk them under, water rushes into their mouth and nose simply by the force of gravity. But when a baby is horizontal and you dip their face in, they will only inhale water if they gasp once they're under water.

So, hold baby horizontal, say the prompt (I use: "One, two, three, under!"), then blow in baby's face so they will close their eyes and mouth and hopefully not gasp. Then dip baby's face into the water as quickly as possible - honestly I was only doing it for a half second at a time.

We did this quite a few times and she was happy each time. A little surprised. And a once or twice she did slightly gasp and so she coughed very briefly (I am estimating she only swallowed drops of water, considering how briefly she was underwater and the position she went under).

But that is ok, because it is part of the learning process. The baby has to learn what not to do - what will happen if they don't hold their breath.

However, I do keep it down to three times per session. If baby has swallowed or inhaled water more than three times that day, I stop doing submersions. Even though it is only possible for her to swallow / inhale the most minuscule amount because of my technique. It is just not healthy to inhale or swallow lots of water so I always err on the side of caution.

Looking forward to the rest of the summer and her learning how to swim! Hopefully next week's weather will be kinder to our swimming habits.

Resources used this week:

Free Quantity Cards printables (Glenn Doman dot cards)  Free Printable Reading Word Cards (for baby or toddler learn to read program)
 
Low altitude clouds
  Types of triangles



  Follow me on instagram to get updates on our day to day learning activities:

20 comments:

  1. 2015/04/21 at 5:35 am

    So cuuute!! May I ask what “toys” or from a Montesorri type perspectibe what “materials” or “work” you provide for Aria’s (and your boys when they were 6-12mo) exploration/learning?

    Ooh, and do you have any suggestions for encouraging hanging/upper body development without the use of a trapeze?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 2015/04/21 at 12:38 pm

      Hi Gaea, I am just about getting back into reviewing ideal materials to use as Aria is just about to become in need of more “advanced” toys (as in, up until this point, her toys have just been for practice grabbing things and chewing on them). I don’t have a list of the top of my head, but as I said, I am working on one.

      Some of the things I do remember using at this age included very simple puzzles, toys with ramps (ball ramps, car ramps), container toys such as nesting rings and stacking blocks or just an assortment of bowls and trays and cups and so on to practice fitting them into each other and putting things into them and dumping them out. Toys that involve fitting pieces into small spaces, such as shape sorters. Small motor developing toys like stacking rings or similar toys that require baby to fit things together. Stacking toys such as blocks. Rolling toys such as cars and trucks. Imaginative play toys such as stuffed animals, dolls, toy food and toy dishes, toy “household items” such as toy phones or hair brushes – babies this age don’t generally play imaginatively by themselves but they will mimic and play along if you involve them in imaginative play with these items.

      This is all I can think of at the moment. But I will hopefully be posting a better resource list soon.

      As for your question about developing hanging skills without a trapeze:

      Up until this point she always hung from my thumbs. She was able to hold onto my thumbs and lift to a sitting position pretty much from birth. And ever since 5 weeks old she has been fully supporting her body weight while hanging from my thumbs for a short time. Eventually a baby will get too heavy for you to be able to hold their weight, that is why I introduced the trapeze bar. But if you don’t have anything to hang a trapeze bar from, you can just buy a dowel and have baby hang from a dowel while you hold it. Of course always doing this over a soft surface such as a bed, just in case. And it is helpful if you can “spot” the baby in case they fall – you could do that by having another adult hold the dowel while you spot the baby. You can also install a dowel in a doorway.

      The size dowel I use for this age is 3/4 of an inch, I believe. You can purchase them at any hardware store and I believe you can also buy a 3/4 inch size in the craft section of Walmart.

      Delete
    2. 2015/05/04 at 9:31 pm

      Awesome!! Thanks so much for your reply!!!

      Delete
  2. 2015/10/26 at 9:50 am

    Hi Domanmom, thank u for your sharing!
    May I know when do we change the material to flash since Glenn D. said not to test them

    Esther

    ReplyDelete
  3. 2015/08/12 at 2:56 am
    Any updates on Aria’s early learning program?? So excited to hear! ;)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Very nice post, impressive. Its quite different from other posts. Thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
  5. CrownQQ | Domino agent QQ | BandarQ | Domino99 Online Largest

    Who Is The Agent Bandarq, Domino 99, And The Trusted Online Poker City in Asia comes to all of you with exciting game games and exciting bonuses for all of you

    Bonus on CrownQQ:
    * Bonus rolling 0.5%, every week
    * Refferal Bonus 10% + 10%, lifetime
    * Bonus Jackpot, which you can get easily

    Featured Games CrownQQ:
    * Online Poker
    * BandarQ
    * Domino99
    * Bandar Sakong
    * Sakong
    * Bandar66
    * AduQ
    * Sakong

    More Info Visit:
    Website: AGEN BANDARQ CrownQQ
    BBM: 2B382398
    FB: AgentCrownqq
    Twitter: crown_qq

    ReplyDelete
  6. Artikel tersebut sangat berguna sekali gan,mantapp
    jangan lupa click bait kita juga ya AGEN BANDARQ

    ReplyDelete

  7. Bonus dari nagaQQhoki
    Bonus Refferal 20%
    Bonus Turn Over 0,5%
    Ayo gabung sekarang juga hanya dengan
    mengklick AGEN BANDARQ TERBAIK
    WHATSAPP : +855967014811
    PIN BB : 2B209F68

    ReplyDelete
  8. Congratulations on your article, it was very helpful and successful. 30a02f79c241b6e18dba5c4a79472620
    website kurma
    website kurma
    numara onay

    ReplyDelete
  9. Thank you for your explanation, very good content. 20c032e7aea038c5248d2a91dcf5780d
    define dedektörü

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for your comments!