Week 3, day 4: Bonus day!

I didn't expect we'd have any time in the room day, but my husband once again offered to try sleeping in the guest/storage/baby room, so we had access to the Montessori area (and could be a bit louder around the house!).

Nugget's first stop was the Smelling Bottles. After she gave them all a first sniff, I pulled two out at a time. I let her sniff one, named it, then let her sniff the other and named it. Then I mixed the two up and picked one randomly for her to smell, then asked her what the smell was. She was surprisingly good at this! I didn't expect any of them to hit, but she got nearly all of them. I guess she really might be ready to start matching.

Next, she pulled out the animal beginning/ending sounds. She alternated ending and beginning, finally doing the ending sounds 5 times and the beginning sounds 4 times, for a total time investment of 30 minutes (!). She could have kept going, too, but I was totally bored. I'm slowly working on getting her to do this more independently, but she wants me there just as someone to either be the voice of the animal or the voice of the person helping the animal find its sound.

Nugget (as animal): I need help finding my sound!
Me: Okay. Your name is....
Nugget: Moose!
Me: And your beginning sound is...
Nugget: Mmm! (Puts animal on the "m")

When I finally backed completely out of it, she did, too.

She then went to the toothpicks, while I did the jingle/non-jingle bells. After one iteration of that, we swapped. Then she went to containers while I did Cylinder Blocks.

After quite a while, I moved on to building the Brown Stair. Nugget decided to help when I was about half done and, of course, put the smallest one next in line. But then she independently corrected when she went to place the next stair, and completed the rest of it by herself. Yea!

Then she matched the Pink Tower cubes to the Brown Stair (always a favorite). When we put the Pink Tower away, I decided to put it away built. She can't reach the top then (it's on a shelf), so I had to boost her up to put the last 4 or 5 on top. She found this terrifically amusing, and got a case of the giggles that made the delicate placement difficult. And then THAT led to hiccups, which made it even HARDER, and made her giggle more... all in all, very amusing all around.

And then to finish it up, I rolled up my rug... and she rolled up hers! As much as any kid does at their first attempt, I imagine. But at least she tried. That's new!