Simply Love

Contrary to the norm here I do not have a baby sitter or a nanny to look after Sasha. As the result I always take Sasha everywhere I go. We pretty much were inseparable....Yesterday, I decided to leave Sasha with my mother to go to a reunion. I thought since my husband was away on a business trip, Sasha would be thrilled to spend time with grandma for a change. When I got back, my mom told me that Sasha was excited to spend time with her but he looked sad and kept looking at the door. He did not cry just sad. I think he understood that sometime I could not be with him. Everything is a learning process for Sasha and this was just one of them.

Vacation Time

Vacation nevertheless plays an important part in Sasha's life. I believe, as a family going away together on a vacation makes bonding with each other closer. Vacation can also be a medium to learn a new culture, food, music or even animal. Recently we just got back from Thailand. I was pleasantly surprise that at his young age, Sasha adjusted very easily with the pace of the trip. From flying on the airplane to touring the ancient palaces and temples, Sasha never looked bored. Everything went on smoothly. He even fell in love with the elephants and went on to ride on an elephant. After that he wanted to have as many elephant t-shirts he could have.

Light, Camera, Action

Here is a little peek of what Sasha likes to do everyday...

Sunday

Sunday is pretty much a family day. Today is more of the time to go visit grandmother type of family day. Sasha's grandmother lives on the other end of the city, however traffic on a Sunday is usually pretty light. Sasha actually enjoys riding in the car on a Sunday to go to his grandmother's house. I cannot stress the importance of family bonding enough. Shichida method is all about love and having a good family relationship. Going to see grandparents, meet the cousins, aunts and uncles are part of learning about love and family bonding.

Counting

Counting numbers is one of Sasha's favorite things to do. He has a number poster of 1 - 100 that I put up on a frame. Sasha likes to count the numbers while pointing at them starting from 1 to 100. At first he was only interested in counting from 1 to 10. A few months later he started to show interest in counting from 1 to 20. I never force him to count everything at once. The technique here is to show ten numbers at a time before moving on to the next and counting out loud.

Books

Here are some of Sasha's favorite pop-up books. Ever since he was little, Sasha has always been surrounded by books. My husband and I like to read, so naturally we also want to introduce reading habit to our son. Sasha has a pretty good collection of books in English, Japanese and Indonesian. The books that he owns ranging from board books to pop-up books. The pop-up books in particular, mesmerizes him. He could flip these books for hours. At present, Sasha likes to have my husband read a Japanese story book that illustrates different crying sounds of animal.

Family Day

Today is our day off, meaning there is no lesson that my son, Sasha, and I need to go to. A day off also means a family day. I know it doesn't sound like a conventional family day having a day off in the middle of the week. However, since we do not have either Shichida lessons or a gym class, my husband and I decided that whenever there is no lesson on that day we will make it our family day. Therefore, we like to take Sasha to places like Sea World, Taman Safari, or simply to a playground. The idea here is to experience as much nature as possible.

One thing about the Shichida method that many people probably do not know is that the method encourages you to experience nature as much as possible. Especially when your children are very young. It is a very good experience for them to touch the grass, to smell the flowers, and to see many different animal or even just to feel the wind blowing on their little faces.

Recitation

In line with the Shichida method training, I try to have my son, Sasha, recite poem or nursery rhyme for several times a day to sharpen his memory. Haiku by Basho poem is by far my Son's favorite poem. He could recite this poem in a heart beat.

Haiku

The old pond
A frog jumps in
The sound of water

At present, Sasha has also memorized the following nursery rhymes and he likes to recite them as well:

Lavender's Blue

Lavender's Blue, diddle diddle
Lavender's green

When I am king, diddle diddle
You shall be queen

and

Star Light, Star Bright

Star light, Star bright
First star I see tonight

I wish I may, I wish I might
Have the wish I wish tonight

Typical Day

A typical day for me would be my normal day plus taking my son, Sasha to all of his activities. For example, since we live in the Shichida Indonesia foundation compound, Sasha goes to Shichida school three times a week for his English program and once a week for his Japanese program. He also has a gym class every Saturday morning.

In addition, Sasha loves to accompany me to the supermarket to do some grocery. Since my husband works from home, we always go out as a family together. Sasha is able to tell us what supermarket we are going to by just looking at the area that we pass by. He loves to put stuff in the grocery cart. At the supermarket, I like to name all vegetable and fruit that we see and buy. This activity helps him to relate the real objects with the images he sees in the flash cards. I also like to point out other stuff that we are buying for the day to enhance his vocabulary.

Going back home from grocery shopping, Sasha usually would ask my husband and I to go see a fountain around the area. He is fascinated by fountains and waterfalls. I can tell you, sometimes the most entertaining toy for a child is the one you can get for free.

Normal Day

A normal day for me would start by preparing breakfast for my 2.7 year old son, Sasha. Then he would go outside to get some morning sun and fresh air. After an hour or so Sasha would come back to have his flash card time. My son loves flash card that it is mostly what he plays with everyday. Sasha likes to read the words on the flash cards as well. At 2 year and 7 month old he is able to read words that I have been flashing to him regularly. To enhance his critical thinking I like to play puzzle games with him right after he finishes flash card.

Then close to noon I would prepare lunch. I am very lucky that Sasha eats anything that I cook...and he is off to nap for about an hour. His dinner is usually at 5:30 PM. Sasha is a very active boy so I let him play outside once more before his dinner time. Sasha's bath time is normally at around 7:30 PM. Right after bath time Sasha usually would look at some dots flash cards. He would anticipate the dots cards as soon as he gets dressed.