32 month old Chipsy

I have been so busy lately that I kept postponing this post which I meant to write two months ago. Now, my Chipsy is 32 month old.

Despite being in the challenging phase of the infamous 'Terrible 2', he is truly a dream baby and such a sweetheart. In the little body is a soul so affectionate, cheeky, fiesty and angelic. At times, he can be difficult and fussy, but like all kids, he can be managed with the right conditions and plenty of TLC.  

(When watching TV, N's favourite place is on the couch, right next to his older brother. Sometimes this annoys M a lot as N keeps shifting closer and closer till M is 'squashed' to one corner of the couch.)

His favourite play mate is his 4.5yo brother. They play very well together, at most times. They giggle and laugh as they amuse themselves with their own games. When he is with M, he doesn't parallel play. Instead, he actively plays with M. They build and create together, solve puzzles together, chase each other and play all sorts of pretend games together. But when other kids are over for playdates, he seems to prefer parallel playing.

(They played their own chasing game for a full hour. The game: N was the dinosaur and M the prey.) 

His favourite companion of all time is his Piggy-Wiggy (renamed recently). Actually he has two of them. They bring him instant comfort and happiness. He plays lots of pretend games with his Piggy. He openly confesses how much he loves his Piggy and tells us it is 'very cute' and 'I love my Piggy so much, mummy'. He even said he loves Piggy more than mummy and daddy. 

 

His current obsession lies with elephants and mammoths, though like most kids, he is also very interested in other animals.




He loves to brush teeth and is the first to run to the bathroom every morning with his mouth wide open, all ready to go 'ahhh... eeeee...'. Some days, he will come to us with 'let's go brush teeth now, ahhh... eee... and mama says 'dream baby', okie?'. This always makes me laugh.

He loves water play. Anytime! If I oblige, he will be happy to sit in a bath the whole day and play 'elephant bucket' which is basically him dumping water from a blue bucket onto other bath toys. He also loves fountains, waterfalls etc.. and can stand in front of one and watch for way-too-long (yes, mummy always complains about this.. *yawn*)

He loves to sing and has an excellent memory which is very evident in the way he remembers rhymes, tunes, complicated stories and lengthy explanations. He just listens to a rhyme or tune once or twice and more often than not, he could remember the tune and part of the words straightaway to join in. 

He is now at a phase of cracking jokes and laughing at his own humour. Sometimes he realises that I am distracted, and will come to me with a joke and tell me 'mama, laugh hahaha'. 

His language development is the one area that constantly surprises and pleases us a lot. As E pointed out recently, he has skipped the entire phase of confusing 'I' with 'you'. M struggled with that for a brief period around this age. N speaks in mostly complete sentences and sometimes long, complicated sentence structures. At times, when I rephrase his questions or sentences, he will self-correct without me asking him to. I notice that he almost always gets it right the next time. I am sure his good memory helps a lot.

He has an expansive vocabulary and is picking up new words everyday in both languages. He can read quite a lot of words though I can't be certain exactly how many. Unlike M, he won't read the flash cards to me at a sitting. But I am not bothered by the number anyway. What matters more is he has starting reading. 

He is now as sharp an observer as M and is quick to point out any irregularities he spots. When he is not offering explanations for his observations, he asks non-stop to satisfy his curiosity. He is interested in pretty much anything that I introduce to him, be it games or books or activities and is often an eager participant in whatever I do with M. 

We read a lot. Both children's fiction and non-fiction. In the last 3 months, he has been attentive enough to listen to me read lengthy (say 30 pages) and wordy non-fiction books meant for kids under 12, and actively discuss the content with me after.

We have also been working on different skills development on a regular basis.  He plays all sorts of toys and games and is getting better at the more challenging stuff.

(He likes to do this from time to time and when he feels like it, he can patiently complete the whole activity on his own from finding the pieces to laying them out.)

(Above was a high rise building he built entirely on his own. He included a lift in the building. The top of the lift is the blue Lego piece)

He is still not very fond of puzzles unless he has company. He isn't as fond as M to express through drawing either, but he is definitely more eager to get his hands dirty compared to M at the same age. So he never rejects any painting or crafts activities. 

His strengths are quite different from M. While both are strong in language development, N's other strength lies in his quick grasping of Maths concepts and anything that requires logical interpretation.


(Above was taken 3 months ago. Working on a book that was stashed away. It was given to M by a relative when he was just 2 yo, but M never worked on it before)

There has been some discovery here that I found impressive. I believe he certainly has a flair in this area. More on this in future posts. 

After a few months of being rather disciplined in following the weekly homeschooling plan I set for him, we have covered a fair bit. Since a few months ago, he already knows all his 2-D shapes, alphabet, colors, numerals (up to 20) and can count reliably till 20 in English. Now he is learning the Mandarin version. He is very receptive to Mandarin and keen to learn. I just haven't been disciplined enough to do it properly so far. He understands all the concepts that I can think of to teach him and has an extensive knowledge in terms of content. So I have changed our homeschooling focus. 

For the last 2 months, we have stopped following the weekly plan and concentrated on lapbooking to reap the full benefits of trans-disciplinary thematic learning. We have just completed another simple lapbook and will be embarking on a new one soon. These are in addition to the 3 lapbooks he has made in the Bright Minds Lapbooking classes since April. 

Every night when I kissed him in bed, I just get reminded once again of how much I love this little boy. It is so hard to believe how fast time flies. I am sure I will look back in future and be thankful for the golden years I spent with my Little Peanut.