One on one time~Lydia

Being a planner doesn't always work out. God doesn't care about our plans so when things don't pan out and I end up having a 2 day school week I find ways to go with the flow. Although there is still that little voice in my head that wants to moan and complain about not sticking to a schedule.

My mother-in-law is on her spring break this week and asked if she could take Delores out yesterday and spend the night and bring her back today. Sure! I have no problem with that. Then wednesday night I realized, eek! No lessons on Thursday. Okay I can get over that, we will make it up on Friday (today) right? No, of course not. Delores is probably not going to be home in time for lessons. So, it's a short week. Oh well.

Now you may ask, why not just go ahead a give Lydia her lessons? Well she doesn't do so well when her sister is not by her side. She has gone her whole life with her sister within a yelling reach from her and on those rare occasions when they are not together, she is just not herself. I really don't want to disrupt her more by attempting to give her lessons without her sister because that is something she has never done.

So what did we do? We played of course! I don't get a lot of one on one time with either one of them because they are on the same schedule as far as sleeping goes. So it was nice to play with Lydia and spend some quality time with her.

Here's some shots of what we did before nap time yesterday:


I made her a "house," as she called it.



I didn't get a lot of photos because I was busy having fun with her. We listen to a lot of Mr. Eric music (author and songwriter of the popular Pete the Cat books) and sang and danced. Played a classic game of "I'm gonna get you." We stayed in pj's all day. We played Doctor and cooked bananas in her play kitchen. Then we chased the cat around trying to feed her pieces of food on little play dishes.

This morning we painted with food:



And intrigued the cat by Lydia pretending to be a cat herself


Whew! I forgot how exhausting it is to have just a 2 year old to entertain. Delores normally does that for me. But, it was a good reminder of how important play is as well as structure and learning. The joy and discoveries children find all on their own can be better than any given lesson. That is why the prepared environment is so important. So the child can roam free, be themselves, make discoveries and have fun in a safe, encouraging environment with minimal need for adult help.

And today my mother has asked if she can take Lydia for the afternoon. Now I'll have the pleasure of having one on one time with Delores. I can't wait to see what she gets into!