Hestia's Homeschool

Spring has burst forth in Kentucky...it is glorious this year.  I told David it is the prettiest Spring I remember. He laughed and said that  I always say that.  Right now the cherries are in full bloom, and the Bradford pears, and the daffodils are blooming simulataneously with creeping flox (which does not usually happen around here).  It is SO pretty. The girls have not been in the house for three days.  Literally, they come in to pee and then take back off.

Little Shelby has spent hours outside, too. Shelby has developed the bizarre habit of picking flowers and eating them, right now to no ill effects, but some (Lily of the Valley and Foxglove) can be fatal so I have to watch her like a hawk.

When David woke up at six thirty, she followed him into the john where he was trying to do his business, so I took her out again for a long walk until dark. Walking with a two year old is a very slow paced but enlightening experience. They see so much more than we do.  Occasionally Shelby just lays on her back on the sidewalk and looks at the sky.

I spend a great deal of time lately teaching her to learn  to label her feelings, so she can express herself more accurately.  Almost everything is happy or sad right now in her vocabulary.  Two years old possess the same range of emotions adults to, but lack the vocabulary to express themselves.  And so, Shelby will crouch over a dead worm being eaten by ants and say it is sad, and I will agree.  Then she will say she is sad, and I will tell her if she seems frustrated, angry, lonely, etc.

I think many adults could benefit from this expercise, as well. :-)

Here is a chart in Spanish that I am considering buying for the girls.  There is an excellent one in English, as well.

|  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this

• #3 Comment from sassydee50 
  4/10/05 7:56 PM | Permalink

  Good for you for teaching your 2 year old about feelings. I taught at a Headstart preschool where 4 and 5 year olds were at the very beginning of learning to express feelings. What helped were puppets and big colorful pics of faces of the basic feelings to start with...I had a relationship once with someone who just got into recovery for AA. I started out by teaching him the same way. Eventually he graduated to carrying around a list of feelings he would read from the discovered that he was not always "bewildered"! :-) Sassy ~PS. Happy Spring!
  
  
• #2 Comment from my78novata 
  4/9/05 10:08 PM | Permalink

  yes its a wonderful day. Todd and I went for two walks today.
• #1 Comment from rgossett4195 
  4/9/05 10:06 PM | Permalink

  Spring is trying to appear here in Northern Illinois as well.  I love tihs time of year when Mother Nature is waking up her beauty.  Emotions are a tough one, we as adult would do well to learn to identify and label our emotions correctly as well!  rose