Enacting a book

Yesterday was a perfect example of how one can have keep planning on what to do on a certain day and then the child surpises you with her own plans. We started off the Hsing routine with prayers and then proceeded to enact the book " The Hungry Caterpillar ". We set to do a small chart with the days of the week and then draw the corresponding stuff that the caterpillar eats on each day.   I phonetically spelled the days of the week for the first three days of the week while Chellu (Shruthkirti)  wrote it down & then we did the reverse. I've observed many times that Chellu would ask me to do the same as I ask her to. Its not about being lazy or not wanting to do something but in a sense they want us to participate in  an activity in the same way as they do. So then she attempted to phonetically spell the rest of the days while I wrote it down ..I could see the satisfaction in her face- like as though she was the parent & I was the child!  I drew all the stuff that the caterpillar eats on each day and she proceeded to color/paint it. But from the look of it , it didn't seem like she was too interested. She generally does an amazing job of painting anything but yesterday she wasn't in it. We let it be ..there was no point pushing her.

She seemed very enthu to start the drama which we eventually did. She enjoyed enacting the drama but somehow she didn't seem her usual self! While we were doing this chart, Kunju ( Shreedhari) was very keenly cutting paper. Its amazing that the sisters seem to show the same interests at the same age. Chellu was exactly like this-cutting away paper like crazy around 2.6-3 yrs. I was observing Kunju and she seemed to have such beautiful finger coordination. She was holding the scissors perfectly & more importantly absolutely enjoying her activity.

Just before naptime in the afternoon we proceeded to our daily spelling exercises and Chellu  really suprised me with her speed. I guess she needed to be restful . I've always observed that she seems very tuned in just before napping . And the habit of being focussed before naptime has probable been cultivated by reading.

And then she woke up in the middle of her nap saying that she needed to do potty and then ended up doing so thrice..Her stomach was upset! No wonder she seemed distracted  before....And then after her third attempt she came out and said "Amma  Ive made up a song on caterpillars!" We then proceeded to write it down, while spelling the words.. We enjoy writing down the children's songs and stories ..Its such fun seeing them going about composing their interesting stories about everything. The poem goes about like this..
" Caterpillar (2), how are you?
   I am good (2)  who are you
   I am a tiny caterpillar and who are you?
   I am a  big girl and what's your name
   My name is Shruthkirti Shankar and what do you eat?
   I eat some green leaves , thank-you (2)
   Sleep ( 3) in the coccon and  sunday
   He becomes a beautiful butterfly.
She then  drew 4 butterflies representing each of us with a flower to suck nectar from !

I personally believe that kids learn a lot from books. Though  Chellu can't converse fluently in English yet she seems to get better at it everyday. The above poem is an example!