On 11th Oct 2012, Liya completed 3 years on planet earth. Needless to say, it's been an awesome journey, parenting a little girl, by learning, unlearning and re-learning, everyday. Thank God for each and every moment!! And today, we complete 5 years of our married life!! How awesome is that! Thank God!
It's been such a long since my last Liya update. So much had happened since then. Given the fact that pre schoolers learn quickly, last few months have been rapid 'development' time for her too.
Drawing/Coloring:
She has always been crazy fan of drawing and coloring and the same goes on. Now, she can color almost neatly and inside the picture. She draws many pictures and all coming from her imagination.
Dated august 2012 |
Dated Oct 2012 |
A birthday party.. you can see many balloons (dated : aug 2012) |
Hand tracing (dated Aug 2012) |
Reading/Writing:
We absolutely didn't want her to start writing alphabets and so I never taught her. But she was very keen to write. A couple of months ago I noticed that she was able to write most of the alphabets. I was very curious to know how did she learn. We where in US during that time and I was 101% sure that it was not learned from daycare. When I paid close attention, the very interesting secret was revealed. She is not writing but drawing alphabets..:) Initially, she was able to write almost all the alphabets except a few which are simple. I find it quite interesting that she is struggling to do 'easy' things. She can't write C but she can write B. Finally, she learned to write C because she wants to write 'CAT' and without C she can't write CAT..lol! Motivation really plays a good role.
Drawing ABCD... |
A chu-chu train and an itsy bitsy spider.. (dated Aug 2012) |
Wrote her name for the first time! |
Imagination:
She continues to be imaginative. She can imagine weird things, like any other kid. Below is her imagination - 'A car running over a rainbow'..:)
A car going over a rainbow (Dated: Aug 2012) |
Thomas station (Dates Sep 2012) |
She can still play hours with her imaginative friends and teachers. She would talk to them, play and fight with them... She continues to perform role plays etc whenever she is alone.
Excuses/Justification:
I don't think it's a very positive trend, but she can find excuses for anything which she doesn't want to do. She also finds justification for anything which she did...
Quite often we would hear:
"I did it because.."
"Because Momma was..."
"I don't want it because...."
Linguistic:
This is where she has improved very rapidly. She had a very strong vocab when we left US, with a nice American /neutral accent. The accent is completely gone. Though she used to speak Malayalam well from US, in a week we lived in Kerala, she picked up tons of Malayalam words. In a weeks time, her default language had switched from English to Malayalam.
In Hyd, she had another two languages awaiting- Hindi and Telgu, both she had no clue about. Though teachers and kids in her daycare communicate in English, Ayas (nannies/care takers) would only talk in Hindi or Telugu. She was all perplexed initially. In a months time, she was able to understand 'Hindi and Telugu - that's what her teacher said to me. My maid also talks Urdu, which is closer to Hindi, and so I can see that Liya is able to understand what she says. Liya usually responds with gestures. :)
When my maid's daughter come home during weekends, both of them play. Z talks in Urdu, Liya responding in English, it is real fun to watch!!
Grammer:
Once in a while you can still see her adding new words to English- I drinked, I sleeped, I keeped, I runned... etc
3 years mastering 2 languages and understanding another two!! Wow, I am sure that's just awesome.
Yay! We got malayalam books! |
Fault finding:
This is the recent trend I saw in her especially after returning from the US. For every silly thing, she would compare to something in US, and afterwards a long list of complains and faults would flow out. In fact she is curiously looking for a loophole to go back to her dear friends...:)
Attitude:
Determined, adamant, independent and little bit of feminism - that's all about her. Every morning, only thing I have to do for her is bathing - after bathing she happily goes and picks her dress, wears it, eat her breakfast, fill in her bag with lunch box and extra cloths, wear her shoes and command "Momma, I am ready... "She is so proud to do things her own- Ma Sha Allah!
Feminism- yes not just a bit, but way too high. The best way to motivate her is "Liya, only girls can do this, only bold and strong girls can do it".. In next moment you will see her patiently following the instructions.
Singing/Dancing:
She loves to sing and dance but whenever she feels to do it. She has learned many rhymes. Most interestingly, she learned one Hindi rhyme and our National anthem after joining new daycare..:)
Comparison:
Like any other parent, I never want her to comparing her with others and so we never do. But, she started to do it her own. From her hear clip to the no. of songs she by hearted, she compares with others and whines. Just a bad habit, I would say.
Boys Vs Girls:
Last 3-4 months she has been doing research on the differences between girls and boys. The conclusion is that:
Whatever Pappa does, but Momma and Liya don't do - that's boys thing. And the vice versa. For example:
- Pappa doesn't use pillow, that means boys don't use pillow only girls use it.
- Momma and Liya goes for grocery shopping, that means boys don't do grocery shopping.
- Liya doesn't cry, she is bold and strong. She is a girl too. So, boys are weak, they are cranky and they do cry!
How amazing that she is 3 now! And, learning so much so fast. It is awesome that she can speak 2 different languages, and understand even more.
ReplyDeleteHappy Birthday Liya! And Happy Anniversary to you!
Thank You so much Christina. Glad to see you back. Hope everything is well with your health.
DeleteSuch a lot learnt! My son also learnt his alphabet drawing and reciting just from looking and watching - no teaching! He also learnt to read without much help before even starting school - he would read everything even when travelling in the car, he would read adverts outside. All kids learn differently and my girls didn't learn until they started school.
ReplyDeleteThank You so much for sharing your experience. Yes, it's so true that every child has own way of learning. That itself is a learning for every parent, I think. It's so nice to watch them grow, isn't it?
DeleteI have always been fascinated by the number of language little kids can learn.. And congratulations! For the 5 years mark and the baby. :-) This is such a happy happy blog.
ReplyDelete