Clara looking at Tanja's friend Heike and her son:
Everyone is looking at Tanja in this photo because she had just told a joke:
The party was a lot of fun, and featured three friends that Tanja was in school with from the third grade. That's unfortunately it for the pictures...
In November and December Clara was really into making animal noises. By the middle of December she could do a lot, I can remember cat, dog, duck, tiger, cow, sheep, monkey, rhinoceros (sort of), rabbit, fish, and car ("vroom vroom"). Somehow since Christmas she seems to have almost entirely dropped this except for the monkey. (The monkey is unfortunately a bit confusing because "ah ah" is also the word she uses for potty...) I'm not sure why she got bored of animal sounds, but her new trick is to point to body parts. So far she knows head, nose, mouth, and foot (and maybe knees and eyes, but I'm not sure about those two).
This new trick has led to some interesting observations. The first is rhymes - when I wanted to show Tanja that Clara knew where her feet were after Clara pointed to her feet Tanja said something like "wow, she knows" and then Clara immediately pointed to her nose!! (Also, tonight when Tanja happened to use the word "funky" Clara started saying "ah ah" because she heard "monkey!"). The second observation is the amazingness of bilingual babies. Today at her daycare (more about this later) I told her teachers that she could point to body parts, and for the heck of it I tried asking her to point to her head in German ("Clara, wo ist dein kopf?"). I speak almost exclusively English to Clara at home, so I was sure that she wouldn't do anything. To my absolute amazement she immediately pointed at her head! Since (as far as I know) no one has played this game with her in German before I think this implies two things.
1) Clara must understand the phrases "point to your head" and "where is your head" at a reasonably deep level. It's not as if she has simply learned that those particular sound patterns mean she should point to her head, or else when she heard "wo ist dein kopf" she wouldn't do it.
2) Clara had already learned that "kopf" and "head" are the same thing before we started playing this game.
Hopefully the linguists will tell us more in the comments!!
A similar thing has happened several months ago when I read Clara a German book that ends with "auf wiedersehen," and she waved goodbye. I have no idea where she learned "auf wiedersehen," since she learned to wave when we said "bye-bye" in English, and in Germany everyone generally says "tschüs."
Daycare
At the end of January we're traveling to Alberta for my brother Patrick's wedding, and when we get back to Berlin in February Clara will start to go to daycare. We were lucky to find a "Kita" that's a few blocks away from our house that is starting a new group. It seems that it's usually quite difficult to get into a nearby daycare unless your child starts in September. When the oldest kids switch to school then lots of spaces free up. The daycare is subsidized, and the amount parents have to pay is determined by their income. Until I find a job we'll be paying less per month than we would pay per week in Philadelphia.
The group that Clara will be in will eventually have seven kids, all under two years old. There is one full time teacher and a second support person who will be there most but not all of the time. They're both very very nice, and they are happy to let me come to visit with Clara every day in January even though we don't start to pay until February. So far Clara's group only has two boys, one 12 months and one 18 months. Another girl will be starting soon, but I'm not sure how old she is.
Today was the second day that Clara and I have gone and spent about an hour at the Kita. Clara seems pretty relaxed, and she's happy to go over and play with the teachers and the 18 month old boy (the 12 month old has been home sick). I think the teachers are glad to have Clara come, because I guess it's more fun to have more than just one child. It's also really nice for me, both because it's fun to see Clara interact with other children and new toys, and also because I get to have an hour of German practice with two really friendly people in a really great (quiet, warm, and soft) environment!
The only disappointment I have so far is with the number of battery operated/windup/noisy toys they have. I don't mind toys that make noise when the child does something (push a button, turn a wheel, etc), but I don't like toys that continue to play a song long after a string has been pulled (or much worse, when they are "on"). Today Clara reached into a cupboard to pull out a toy truck, and she was really freaked out when it suddenly made a sound! I'm going to stop now before I go off on a crazed tangent about my Views about children's toys. Suffice it to say that I think Tetris is a better game than Super Mario Bros, and I think that kids shouldn't need a battery to make a toy truck go "vroom" or a toy dog go "woof."
(To be fair to the Kita, well more than half of the toys are the type I approve of. In my mind the appropriate number of battery operated toys in an under two year old daycare is zero.)
Thanks for posting all the recent comments! We look forward to reading more!
7 comments:
Hm, not sure exactly what to say about her language development... it sounds like she DOES know that "kopf" and "head" are the same word! I'm not sure if she knows all the other words though. If you just said "head", would she point to her head, or does she need the whole "where is your head?" to know what you want from her?
As for the battery operated toys, I never thought about them like that. I mean, I find them annoying, particularly when they just keep playing and playing. But I hadn't really thought about how they aren't letting the child just observe them without really having to do anything!
We tried it this morning. I said "head!" and then "Kopf!" and then "Clara head!" Tanja also said either head or kopf once or twice. She looked up at us kind of puzzled, and then eventually pointed to her head. So I guess that she got from the context (us staring at hear and saying "head") that she should do something, but if I just say "Clara where is your head?" then she points right away.
of course, susy and i agree about the noisy toys. i mean, a car that honks when you press a button is kind of okay, but a car that makes sounds for 30 seconds that don't even make sense when you press the button is just irritating, strange, and not educational.
thanks for pointing out how cheap your daycare is.
jacob also learned things and then either forgot or just moved on. i think it's done to keep us on our toes.
oh, and i love the picture of chester. festive grumpiness.
Cute picture of Chester, and very appropriate, too! Having cat-sat for him, I can attest that he can be just as mischievous as the original Cat in the Hat :-)
It is so fun to watch them learn. Jacob has recently come back to the animal noises. He's learned some letters but I don't think he has learned "letter," as in "what letter is that?" He has a memory card game with a letter and an animal on each card and he doesn't always know which you are asking for - is the answer "C" or "cat" or "meow"?
Ah the noisy toys! The worst one Jacob got was one that was set so if you left and didn't touch it for about a minute it would make another noise to get you to come back. That reminds me I was going to take the batteries out of the truck he got for Christmas that sounds like Sideshow Bob.
We have a fire truck that starts yelling at you if you stop playing with it. Fortunately, it's a NAFTA toy, so you can switch the language to French or Spanish and it's much less annoying. I have been known to "disable" other battery operated toys that come into the house.
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