Learning to Draw

This week my daughter has surprised me a in a few ways, firstly when we were in the playground at school she recognised the first letter of her name from the letter cubes on the playground floor. After  speaking to nursery about the recognition of letters we also established she can pick out her name.

Then as we were talking about letters and drawing I asked her to draw a smiley face and she did, she hasn't really shown much interest in drawing up until now so this is a big milestone for us.

You probably can't tell from the picture but this circle has a smile, two tiny eyes and a nose, it is the first time I have seen her draw anything that resembles a face, so I am excited about what we are going to see in the future.

My sons drawings have gone from this, which was his first ever picture of him and his daddy...

To these intricately drawn pictures, full of imagination and a world through a six year old boys eyes, it is a truly wonderful privilege to be the person who sees these pictures and thoughts.

The milestones never really seem to stop and the magic of children and life through their eyes is just wonderful.

Reading with Children

My son really didn't enjoy reading when he first started school, in fact it's safe to say he hated it and just couldn't get in to it.

But now he is a reading superstar and I love hearing him read, we didn't really push the whole reading thing and instead he just grew to love it.

He now reads to himself and is so enthusiastic about finding books to read, his current favourite are Beast Quest.

Reading is such a great gift for a child, for anyone in fact, it offers independence and is an important part of learning. There is a great video over on Netmums about reading with younger children and books for younger children, it's a bit of self promotion as I am featured on it but it also has some great tips from some other amazing bloggers.

Anyway I digress, this was about my son and the magic moment that is hearing him read. Sometimes it feels like after learning to walk and talk the milestones stop, but they don't, this is a wonderful milestone and a great way to enjoy time together too.

Linking up to Magic Moments on The Olivers Madhouse

Learning to Tie a Shoe - Childhood Milestones

This weekend my son got his first pair of lace up shoes, it is a momentous milestone for any child.

As I sat teaching my son to tie his laces it bought back memories of nursery and the wooden shoelace board that I learnt on.

I remember doing it for the first time and I got a big star sticker, it was such a wonderful feeling so I wanted to make sure he had the same experience.

As I sat behind him we slowly went through the process, he got a little frustrated but we persevered and eventually he had it nailed.

We had lot's of clapping and high fives, I hope that this made him understand how important it is to keep trying in order to achieve something.

I certainly was a very proud mummy,  I had managed to teach him something and he had achieved a huge milestone in his development, I am sure there will be a lot more practice required though ;)