Learning progress!

HAPPY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY JAMES!! (^) MAY THIS YEAR BE THE BEST YEAR YET ... WITH PLENTY MORE TO COME. ;) WLY!

Alright, well on to my ramblings about Kenji. :D Well first of all I'm so happy that Kenji loves doing projects! Okay, okay, so I hear you all saying, "Um, duh, all 2 year old's do." True, but the thing is that Kenji wasn't really into doing projects before. He was mostly preoccupied about kicking a ball around, throwing it into the neighbors house, playing with cars, riding his 'motorcycle', etc., etc. You know the usual 'boy thing' -- getting into mischief! ;) And no matter how hard I tried to make it fun and interesting for him he just wasn't game. Much to my dismay! :D Maybe the fact that it's just him alone doing the project is what kept him from finding it interesting.

But recently he's started to show more interest (finally) in projects that don't solely revolve around playing with cars, play-dough, or balls! YAY! It's a huge step of progress, really it is! As there is just so much to learn and do through projects! But of course first of all you have to enjoy doing projects. :D So I'm quite happy that he finally is showing more interest in this.

Another major progress is ... today he started reading!! Yippee! He's always loved school - flashcards/picture facts/reader/school videos - but wouldn't repeat much when doing his FC, PC, or readers but I knew that he was just storing all that info in his little brain and sooner or later it would all spill out. And it has! He's quite fond of reading the reader books on his favorite computer school game - Starfall - and is picking up on not only sight reading but the phonetic route as well! I'm soooo happy! :) :)

While it is a big deal for me, as you can tell, yet it was bound to happen sooner or later and I'm glad it was the latter. It's common for kids learning 2 languages at at a time to be 'slower' on picking up talking and reading, but I don't think Kenji has really been all that 'behind'. At 1 1/2 he knew his alphabet letters and sounds, shapes, colors, and numerals 1-10,(the last 3 in Spanish as well) plus lots and lots more. It was around this time that his vocabulary began expanding a little more each day, both in Spanish and English, and he started to put simple 2-3 word phrases together.

Now he says a lot, makes himself understood, and copies just about any word he hears that is doable for him to say, ha! I know it's a matter of time before he fully takes off talking - full sentences in either language - there is no rush, and when that occurs it will be one very happy day for me. :) For now I will simply do my best to expand his learning skills and simply let him go at his own pace. I think I will be astonished at the progress made therein, though. ;)

Here are pics of some of the many daily cute things he does. I also have a video of Kenji reading some words, but I'm having issues uploading. So check the blog out again later. :)

* Small note:
He helped make his own lunch, did just about everything from peeling/cutting the veggies, to making a tomato based sauce for the chicken,(an expert garlic peeler) and making mashed potatoes as well. He was so proud of himself and couldn't wait a minute longer to taste his food, he literally dug into the chicken minutes after I removed it from the fire!




The video of him reading some words from his Starfall reader is not working :( I'll keep trying. But, in the meantime here's one of him making lunch for Angel and him. It was his first attempt at saying the words to the things he used. He says it all oh, so very cute!