Week 2 review, week 3 preview

We only had 3 real work days this week, which I'm not really happy about. But life intervenes, and with a little one due soon, that's only going to get worse. So I either need to be ok with it, or try harder to get us in the room even on days when we're not running on a usual schedule.

Those days we were in the room were meh. Nugget was more active and imaginative, which meant she didn't want to engage with the materials in a "normal" way. I'm happy with my use of the Running Tower, and I think that sort of extension of the materials is a good trick to have.

None of the Practical Life materials really seemed to engage her -- except the containers. I'm constantly keeping my eyes open for additions to her collection, but no luck so far. I wonder if a latches board would be as interesting. I need to un-Valentines the Practical Life stuff, and I'll probably take the opportunity to swap most everything. The dressing frames and containers will stay, but I think I'll turn the beads-and-pipecleaners into dropping toothpicks through the shaker holes, change spooning to wet pouring, and replace the stamps with.... something.

For Sensorial, I think I'll put the bells away and add the Smelling Bottles. She's been waiting for those, and I'm really curious to try them as well. Everything else will stay; I'm hoping to just let Sensorial grow as much as possible. Hmm. Maybe the bells should stay out, then.... I guess I kind of like the idea of bringing things like the bells and Smelling Bottles out intermittently to keep them special. But then she can't choose them freely when her sensitive period strikes. Thoughts?

I'm definitely going to try some Language materials. I've got 9 pairs of rhyming cards, and I'll start with a subset of those. I'll put up pictures of those and my word list a bit later.

Nugget's already really good at beginning sounds, but I might try a review of that before moving on to ending sounds. I'm not going to use miniatures, as is usual. I love the idea, but I KNOW that it would degenerate into play. So I'm going to stick to pictures. Although... I think I read on a blog somewhere about putting animals into "caves" based on the sounds in their names. I think Nugget would get a real kick out of that, so I'm going to keep that idea in my back pocket.

I think my biggest goal for this next week is just to get more time in the room. And that is all about my own motivation. I have to either push through the exhaustion or be more flexible about finding time in other parts of the day. It's not going to be any easier in a month or two. :)