According to Raising Children web site, by three years old, BallFiend...
should be able to:
identify four pictures by naming
Yes. Identifies more pictures than I can count. Can also identify many letters of the alphabet, several numbers and even his own name. He also is frequently asking ‘what does that say’ when pointing to a word. Whilst staying with Gran and GrandPaul, he pointed to the word 'party' on the packet of balloons and asked if it said 'party'. But we are not sure if he recognised the word or it was just a good guess based on prior knowledge and context.wash and dry hands
Yes. Thanks to carers at crèche teaching BallFiend to do this.identify a friend by naming
Yes. Names and talks about many of his friends, including when they are not present. Especially playgroup friends LittleMissL, LittleMissP, MasterS, MasterF, MasterW, LittleMissIz, MasterL as well as PetitAmi, and various friends from crèche.throw a ball overhand
Yes. And kicks a ball along the ground, and kicks a ball drop-punt style, and dribbles a ball with his feet, and pat-bounces a ball, and catches a ball... and, and, and...speak and be understood half the time
Yes. In fact, sometimes he never shuts up! Can be understood about 95% of the time by his parents and most other people as well.carry on a conversation of two or three sentences
Yes. In addition to conversations, he also does monologues. Recently (last month or so), BallFiend has become extremely imaginative and makes up short stories. He also likes to make up songs.use prepositions
Yes. Uses many including: about, above, across, after, around, at, before, behind, between, but, by, down, for, from, in, inside, like, near, of, off, on, out, outside, over, to, under, up, with...will probably be able to:
use two adjectives
Yes. Uses many adjectives – more than I can count!put on a T-shirt
Maybe. Probably could do this if he wanted to, but BallFiend has no motivation to dress himself. He does help with putting on tops – if I put it over his head, he will put the arms into the sleeves by himself without prompting.broad jump
Yes, I think so... if this means jump forwards from a stationary position.may possibly be able to:
balance on each foot for two seconds
Yes.describe the use of two objects
Yes. Many more than two.may even be able to:
copy a circle
Yes.prepare a bowl of cereal
Maybe. BallFiend probably could do this but has not tried – shows no interest in doing this.dress without help
The breakfast routine now consists of DeepSpice or I placing a bowl of dry vitabrits (2 biscuits, crushed up) on his little table and a jug of warm milk.
BallFiend sits down and likes us to push his chair in for him. He will put his own bib on (sometimes, when motivated), and always wipes his own hands on a damp cloth before a meal. He then likes to pour his own milk and does so with full control. Rarely spills any. He then ‘mushes’ the vitabrits with a spoon and gets annoyed if they are not flat and smooth. Then he usually eats them with his bare hands.
Often he will demand a second helping (another 2 vitabrit biscuits). When he finished eating, he wipes his hands on his cloth, and sometimes wipes spills up from the table. Then he runs to me or DeepSpice and asks us to wipe his hands (he is sometimes annoyingly fastidious about getting his hands messy... although after meals his hands usually do need a bit more cleaning up).
Maybe. BallFiend shows no interest in selecting clothes to wear, even to the extent that he won’t even make a choice between two t-shirts if offered the opportunity to choose. (Which is the complete opposite of the girls in our playgroup who love to choose their own clothes and even accessorise!)identify four colours
Yes. Knows red, green, blue, yellow, pink, orange, black, purple, brown, white and ‘clear’ (ie. transparent). Sometimes describes various shade of purple as blue or red.put on an article of clothing
Yes. Can put on own socks and pants but is very unmotivated to do so... will only do so if heavily encouraged. BallFiend also put on own shoes once or twice, again with much encouragement. I suppose he just has more interesting things to do. Can put on own hat.To conclude, an obligatory, patronising section...
Very good at taking off items of clothing – especially shoes and socks, which are usually removed as soon as he comes into the house and are then thrown asunder! (Much to my annoyance.)
BallFiend demonstrates great curiosity about the world and continues to apply himself well to task of learning. He does this through unstructured play but also responds well to parental or other carers direction when engaging in more structured activities.
He is extremely interested in balls and all their physical properties, and demonstrates a strong ability to focus at length when investigating the various ways that a single ball can move, be used and sometimes destroyed (the 'face ball' got stabbed in the eye with a screwdriver, the blue and white ball got thrown in a rose bush, the seams of the seahorse beach ball gave up after it was sat on one time too many, and many ping pong balls have been squashed underfoot as BallFiend attempted to backspin them with his heel). His favourite ball at present is the green/blue/pink/clear beach ball; however it also gets sat on frequently and will presumably soon be in ball heaven too.
Whilst it is pleasing to see such a strong ability to focus, BallFiend would benefit from expanding his interests into other areas, for example toy cars or dinosaurs. [I got a school report once that said I spent too much time reading books by a single author and that I should try reading more widely. The school librarian didn't understand that my preference was to read all books by an author before moving on to another author. Something I still do now and don't see any problem with!]
Over the past year, BallFiend has also enjoyed a range of other activities:
- Artistic: drawing in crayon, stamps and ink, playdoh, cutting up paper with scissors. BallFiend's favourite colour is green.
- Culinary: baking with me, chopping up vegetables with a proper kitchen knife (mainly zucchini and onion), grocery shopping, and of course squishing and throwing food.
- Music: singing songs, composing his own songs, playing harmonica (especially if jamming with DeepSpice on guitar or playing along to Sugar Blue with GrandPaul also on harmonica), strumming guitar (again with DeepSpice's help). His favourite music is 'rock and roll' (by which he means the Queen Greatest Hits album) and in particular "mama mia" (by which he means Bohemian Rhapsody).
- Literacy: BallFiend shows great interest in learning to recognise and write various letters and numbers. Favourites are "H" and the number 8. He likes to 'do writing' using pens, biros and markers and not just on paper (furniture, walls and balls have all been popular media). BallFiend loves to read books and be read to - especially books that feature balls or anything ball-shaped, like balloons or eggs. At last count he had well over 100 books.
- Science: recognises various planets and other astrological bodies (Earth, Moon, Saturn, Jupiter), naturally of interest because they are ball-shaped; is interested in physics - can describe a synchotron ("It goes round and round and round and round and BANG!"); likes to experiment with gravity particularly using toys such as marble and ball runs; interested in various materials and their properties ("is this rubber? is this plastic? is this wood?" etc). Understands some aspects of human physiology and is particularly fascinated with the digestive system (ie. he giggles when he farts!); interested in observing blood come out (when watching me have blood samples taken for testing) and speculating on what colour it is.
- Consuming media: watching TV (favourite shows include PlaySchool, the Upside Down Show, Curious George the Monkey and Shaun the Sheep), playing Peggle, watching video clips on YouTube (especially the Pinball Song from Sesame St), watching our Tim Minchin DVD (we had to curb that one, as he was learning some very colourful language!).
A+
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