Hunter Pre-Montessori

Hunter has been accomplishing more and more each day, which made me realize that I need to write down some things he is capable of doing so that I can compare notes later in the year and see if they are continuing to develop him at the rate he has been developing at Kids R Kids.  So, here is a laundry list of Hunter’s accomplishments to date.  And make sure you get through at least #3 because the video is probably the best I’ve ever gotten of Hunter in action!

1.  Counts to 10 (and 11, 13, etc. sometimes)

2.  Remembers words from some of his favorite books so that he can “read” them himself.  Examples:  Elmo book (Mommy & Daddy take me to the water park, Elmo go to sleep), “Daniel book” (Daniel loves God, Daniel trouble, Lions, Hooray), 5 Little Monkeys (both “Jumping on the Bed” and “Sitting in a Tree” – bed, head, said, bed and SNAP, oh no, where is she?, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5), Hop on Pop (Red Ned Bed, fall off the wall, Pat sat on cat, Don’t sit on that, hop on pop – stop!).  Hunter absolutely loves to read books – he would probably let us read to him hours and hours each day.  He also tries to use it as a tool to stay up later at night, but has gotten pretty good about just picking 2 books out when I ask him to.  He still wants to throw Daniel Book in occasionally.

3.  Sings songs (this is brand new within the last two weeks or so) – Twinkle Star, ABCs (he leaves 3-4 letters out), God Our Father (had to ask his KRK teachers what the words to this one were because he was trying to teach me and I couldn’t understand “Thank you for our blessings” because it sounds more like “tank gaskins.”  He obviously doesn’t understand the words, but he’s mimicking very well.)  And he also says occasional words with me in Zacchaeus Was a Wee Little Man.  He also asks us to sing “Pa-daddy” songs because when we are in my car, he gets to listen to his Pa-daddy’s old gospel albums from when my dad was an adolescent.  (So I started this post last week, and since then, Hunter has proven he can sing Amazing Grace – like, we’re talking the whole first verse.  And I got some of it and some other songs on video – this one is a keeper!!)

4.  Recognizes some shapes – circle, triangle, square.

5.  Favorite cartoon is by far Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and he loves to say “Oh toodles” and “Cheers” when they are using the Mouseketools.  Favorite movie so far has been Shrek, but we don’t do movies very often – just in the car really, and we don’t take many long trips that necessitate putting the DVD player in.

6.  Art – does well with Play-Doh, crayons, markers.  Favorite is Play-Doh.

7.  Sports – Hunter throws a ball well and also kicks a ball very well.  He can throw a ball into his basketball hoop and also hit his ball off his blow-up tee with his blow-up bat.  None of this is consistent, but he definitely enjoys his sports and knows the difference between a football and a baseball.  Hunter LOVES to run and play outside, and as seen a couple posts back, loves to play in the water.

8.  Language – Hunter is speaking very clearly.  He understands most pronouns and puts together complete sentences easily.  He understands prepositions and descriptors like in, out, under, over, up, down, etc.

9.  Memory – A lot of the stuff up above is attributed to this kid’s incredible memory.  Books, songs, routines, etc.  He will tell you what happened at school that day, who bit him or what he learned.

10.  Potty training – He will sit on the potty, but has a difficult time climbing up onto it using his step. He has gone tee-tee on the potty a few times at home and went occasionally at Kids R Kids.  He went poo-poo on the potty last Wednesday morning, actually, and no, I’m not attributing this to his new school – I was just changing his diaper and noticed he hadn’t done much when usually it’s FULL.  So I told him to sit on the potty to finish – I think his tummy was hurting because he was kind of clenching before I lifted him up there and then out it came.  So it was kind of an accident, but we celebrated excessively.  We will be doing “Potty Training in One Day” within the next month or so because he’s supposed to be wearing big boy pants in his new class – they’re kind of cold turkey at this school, which I like, but I want to do it right to minimize the accidents (and laundry!!!).