Video Bubs Learning

I have a few videos of the boy to share. I'm telling you, this kid gets to be more and more fun with each day that passes. He's picking up on everything it seems, and starting to repeat more words back to you. He may have even said his first curse word (whoops) last week!

I've been working on getting him to do more things for himself around the house. I'll ask him to go get me a new diaper, or to throw something in the trash, or to grab his bib before dinner. Empowering your child and helping them to be able to do things for themselves is a big principle of Montessori, so I really want to do this for him. Sometimes it makes more work for me in the end, but I think in the long run it will be worth it.

Today, I decided that I was through with the massive aloe vera plant that I have been growing on my patio now for several years. It started out as this itty bitty thing I got at Ikea for 99 cents and it swelled into this gargantuan eyesore that kept having freaking baby aloe plants every spring, and I was running out of room for them! It sent up a shoot for the first time this year, but overall it was just looking sad and overgrown and it no longer brought me any joy.

I hated hacking up a living plant, but it was time. I'm trying not to feel too guilty about it. I also pulled up the babies that were in the pot. You can see the pile from this one plant in the background of this first video. I'll just have to appease my guilt by caring for the thirteen aloe plants that still remain. Since it's so hot, remembering to water them is really important. I've been working with the boy on scooping water and pouring for a while, but today (the 3rd or 4th attempt at this) was the first time he really got it.

Notice how he does not let go of the cars in his other hand at all. He sure does love his cars. Also, notice what I did with my employee of the month award from the hotel, haha!

This is the latest big thing he's picked up - he's learning his alphabet. I'm not joking and I'm not exaggerating either. He can correctly identify almost every letter of the alphabet. Seriously, if someone had told me this about their almost twenty month old, I would have totally thought they were full of crap. Hence, the video for proof! Now, he can't pronounce every letter correctly yet (my favorite is bubboo for W) but he says the same thing every time and it usually sounds something like the letter.

Gotta love the chocolate milk stain on my light tan sofa. Thanks kiddo!

Lest anyone think we're some sort of mean freaks who are sitting around drilling our kid with flash cards all day, I want to assure you that this totally came about from his own interest. It started with the Peek A Boo books, and the letter B. That led to O, which led to him pointing to other letters. We'll tell him the name of whatever he points to, whether it be an apple, a horse, or a letter of the alphabet. The kid is just a total sponge right now!

Just so you know, I don't believe in flash cards for learning. Maybe for reinforcing stuff you already know, but not as a tool for learning. Also, as you probably figured out by my Montessori references, I'm a big proponent of children learning what they want to learn and being allowed to explore their own interests, at least when they're little. I feel that forcing a little kid to sit still while you drill them on stuff just ends up stealing away their natural love of learning and sets them up to hate school.

If we thought our child loved the end credits on tv shows and movies before, he's especially enthralled with them now! As my husband put it, he's discovered a virtual smörgåsbord of alphabet! We watched a movie tonight and as the credits scrolled up the screen he just stood in front of the television calling out letters that he saw. He gets very excited and will even clap for himself sometimes. So cute, this little smartypants of mine!