January

We had a good and busy holiday. Norah loved getting to see all her family on her daddy's side. She has 3 cousins on Andy's side but she is the only girl! Needless to say she gets spoiled! We also had some friends of ours come visit us for New Year's. Norah always loves having guests. She loves to show off for everyone that comes over. We have been hosting our small group from church, and Norah seems to "find herself" in the center of the room every time. It's very cute!

Andy's schedule changed a bit at work (his day off switched from Fridays to Mondays) so we have adapted our weekly schedule a bit too. We also got a zoo pass for Christmas (hooray!) so we're adding that to our weekly activities. She and I love getting to go walk around the zoo for a morning. Our zoo has a North America section and an Africa section. We have so much fun looking at all the animals and plants. The last several times we have gone, we've taken her little friend Savannah, so that's been double the fun for Norah! 

So right now our weekly schedule is something like this:

Monday - Andy home - family time, and grocery shopping. I work at our church's Dream Center (tutoring/mentoring center) in the afternoons on Mondays, so Norah has extra Daddy time when she gets up from her nap).

Tuesday - At home with Mommy, "tot school" routine

Wednesday - At home with Mommy, "tot school" routine

Thursday - Library Storytime (oh how she LOVES this! We both really look forward to library day and are beginning to make some good friends there too). This is Daddy's long work day, so Norah and I have extra time together in the evening too. Sometimes we'll go to the park. We were going to start a ballet class on Thursday evenings, but even though she was excited about it, I've decided she is too young. I took her but she was really too nervous to go into the class without me. She also seems to be much younger than the other students (mostly 3 and 4 year olds?) and I think it would be difficult for the teachers to have a young toddler with the older girls. I hope we can try again when she's 3 or 4. I think she'll love it!)

Friday - I think this is going to be our new Zoo morning. It used to be Tuesdays, but now with Andy's day off moving, I want the beginning of our week to be the home days.

Saturday - Family Day

Sunday - church and our small group

We often have friends over in the evenings, and are currently doing a marriage group Friday nights. The family that hosts the group has little boys, so Norah can play with them. However, last week she seemed a little overwhelmed as the boys had a whole sheriff shooting game going on! She was definitely outnumbered as she tried to "cook" and read books amidst the shooting and legos!

I have tweaked her daily schedule as well. Here it is, revised. Of course this pertains mostly to our at home days, but we try to do Norah Time (independent play) almost every day. If we are going to go out, we try to make sure she gets it first, as we see the good effect it has on the rest of her day. It also helps her the next day if we don't skip!

8:00 - breakfast, watch ABC and numbers videos (on Sesamestreet.org) and Russian videos (Russian alphabet, and a Russian cartoon on youtube). Practice a few Russian words.*

9:00 - dress, use potty, Norah Time (independent play - usually about 45 min)

10:00 - Books with Mommy, and read our Bible story

10:45 - Table Time activity (art, or other learning activity), listen to music, and Snack

11:30 - Outside

12:00 - Lunch and continue Outside play

12:45 - Prepare for nap, read a book together

1:00 - Rest/Nap (she reads in bed for awhile before she falls asleep)

4:00/4:30 - Snack and Movie Time

5:00ish - Free play (she is always happy and hyper this time of day and usually entertains herself!)

5:45 - Dinner, Family Time (on the days Andy has to work late or go to the gym, I am trying to make some more structured activities for this time slot. Maybe just do some coloring or play doh, or play with her toys with her.)

7:00 - Bath

7:45 - Read, Pray, Recite Verses**

8:00 - Bed

*Russian. I went to Russia several years ago and really loved the language. When I came home, I prayed that somehow I'd have the chance to learn it. Really not knowing if I'd ever have the use for the language, but I just had the desire. Probably a day or so after I prayed that, my mom was hosting a garage sale, and a Russian lady who apparently lived about 5 minutes away came to it. I heard her accent and struck up a conversation with her. She was enthusiastic about teaching me Russian! All she wanted in exchange was for me to speak English with her little boy to help him learn it. We quickly became friends and for quite some time I visited Julia weekly for Russian lessons. After I got married and moved away, I met a Ukrainian lady at the restaurant where I waitressed. She was also happy to tutor me, and we became friends quickly. It was always amazing to me to see how God has continued to pave the way for me to continue to learn. Andy was able to take a trip to Ukraine while I was pregnant with Norah, so has a personal interest in the Russian culture and language as well. Though I don't have a personal tutor right now, since we've been back from South Africa I have started up studying again. This time, along with Norah! I have to say it's so exciting learning this way. Norah LOVES learning Russian! We started out by watching a youtube video from Russian Sesame Street of the Russian alphabet song. Every morning she listens to the English alphabet, and then the Russian one. She practically has the English song down, and has the first portion of the Russian one down. I made a chart of each for our fridge so she can learn the letters.

Our next approach has been just to learn a few Russian words every few days. The way we look at it is another "name" for something. For example, I told her that the Russian name for squirrel is "belka." Now whenever we see a squirrel she yells, "Belka!" So cute! So we are continuing that with other animal names, names of clothing, and other random every day things. She has some simple books that have pictures of individual objects with the English name (like dress, milk, car, ball). I looked up the Russian words for each object and wrote it in the book right next to the English. I've only introduced her to a couple words so far. I try to only teach her a few words, sometimes only one or two for a few days, and we just practice it often. But she is so excited about it! Today I only told her a few words, then she started asking me what other words were in Russian! Learning is so fun to her, and her memory is so fresh and sharp. I am finding I am learning so much this way and retaining a lot too. Our pace may be slow, but I feel myself making so much progress even as she is.

**Memory verses. I was really struck by one of Charlotte Mason's principles of memorization and recitation. This was meant for older kids, but I realized how sharp Norah's memory is at 2 and realized I can really be helping her use that right now. We have been doing a monthly memory verse. At the beginning of the month I draw a picture with the verse and she decorates it. Usually she colors it, today she decorated with stamps and stickers. Every night before bed we practice her verses. I am constantly blown away by how quickly and accurately she memorizes. Kids have such sharp minds! So far she has memorized: Genesis 1:1, Psalm 16:8, most of Zephaniah 3:17 (the verse I felt God gave me for her before she was born!), and Psalm 23:1-3. We are slowly memorizing all of Psalm 23, and just did verse 3 today. I had decided to only teach her the first portion of verse 3 because it's long, but she asked me to do more! So today I taught her the rest. I normally prompt her when we are reciting - I usually say the first word or two of the verse, and that reminds her of the rest. I make sure to try to explain to her what they mean too. Like with Russian, it's been so helpful for me in memorizing these verses too as I recite along with her!

Another thing I realized I need to do more now with Norah is to play with some of her toys with her to help her master the skills needed for them. For example, I had been giving her puzzles, legos, or blocks to play with in her independent play, but I noticed she was getting really frustrated because she didn't have all the necessary skills to use them (especially puzzles). So I brought some baskets of puzzles and smaller legos out into the living room, and am using those as activities to do together every so often. I am still trying to have her do most of the work, but I am there to help her figure them out. I want her activities in her independent play to be challenging, because part of the reason she does it is to develop problem-solving skills on her own. But I also don't want to give her activities that are above her ability and therefore cause too much frustration. However, in general I want to help her work on her patience level so she does continue to problem solve before getting frustrated.

Potty training is so-so. We still use pull ups a lot since she has had so many accidents with poop. Invariably if I leave her in underwear she poops in them...However, I have to say that, as much as I realize I need to be diligent and consistent with her on this, this has been an issue where I finally realized, she's going to get this in her own time. I don't feel as stressed about it as I did before. I'm happy with that. It's easy for me to stress about when she is meeting milestones. But I feel like she understands and she will get it over time. This does, again, require me to be consistent and not grow lazy in working with her, but I also don't need to stress over it!

I think I want to add some more work on letters and numbers in the future, because she does seem to be growing in her desire and capabilities to do this kind of work. I still don't want to rush it, but I'm noticing she's recognizing individual letters and numbers here and there, so I want to work with her on that. One of the ways I plan to do this is just playing with her alphabet toys (i.e. her letter factory magnet toy) together with her.

We are continuing the Bible story theme with Joseph. I find this to be a complicated story to explain to a 2 year old, but she enjoys it and I just try to simplify it as much as I can. I know I must not underestimate her though. She picks up so much, and I know teaching her these Bible stories will pay off!