What’s coming next?

The main thing that I’ve put on hold due to not being home is night time potty training.  Bella’s had a good amount of dry nappies during naps and sleep lately, so I think she’s about ready and I really don’t want to miss the opportunity.  I hope that our lives will calm down so we can tackle this neatly in February, before I start freelancing again March.

I’m also looking forward to the weather perking up a bit.  I know that I’m a bit of a homebody, the outdoors is not my natural environment.  I’ve tried really hard not to make it obvious to Bella, and she certainly seemed to thrive outdoors over the summer.  But now that it’s colder, she seems to have turned into a bit of an inside person like me, and we’re struggling to get out.  I’ve bought Exploring Nature With Children and really hope to be able to work through it.  I love that not all the activities actually require going outside (e.g. having a week where you view the moon every night and discuss it, or making a rain gauge) so I think there’s lots to help us reconnect with the outdoors while still being the homebodies that we are.

We’re also continuing to work on music.  I haven’t quite managed to figure out what my strategy is, but Bella has a set of C major deskbells which she loves.  I try to play at least a couple songs on it every day (just the normal favourites that she likes – The Wheels on the Bus, It’s Raining It’s Pouring, etc) so she can keep on developing her sense of pitch.  Soon I’ll introduce clapping exercises and start playing more classical music on the iPod.  It’s all stuff I keep meaning to do but haven’t quite managed to put together into a coherent structure.