Layth's appointment

Last Wednesday Layth had a 3.5 year old assessment by the maternal and child health nurse. He had to stack 3 blocks, copy a circle, use scissors and had an eye test. He didn't want to do the eye test unfortunately. But he passed the other tests.

He was weighed and measured too. He was too apprehensive about using the grown up scales so we had to put him in the baby scale hahahah what a funny sight. He is only 13.5kg..Alhamdulillah. Any heavier than that...sakit pinggang kalau kene dukung. He still wants to be carried sometimes. Especially if "Layf penart" (Layth penat).

I got some advice about his development too. With regards to his patchy diet, the nurse suggested to have regular meals at regular times and he has to eat whatever we have for dinner (no whining allowed) otherwise he goes to bed hungry. So far we've done it twice and he has eaten rice and whatever lauk we have (yeay!) instead of wanting just ice cream for dinner. We can even have a proper ritual of eating. Like reciting du'a before, then learning table manners and learning about different foods.

It's good timing though. It's only after working for 6 months that we even had the opportunity to eat dinner as a family on a regular basis. Unfortunately, next week hubby has the night shift (finishing at 10.30) so dah change of routine again. Quite an unstable lifestyle.

My rehab job though is quite good. Now every day we have a routine and Layth is really enjoying this. We wake up at 7.30 every morning then take a shower, brush teeth, eat breakfast then play with some toys/read a book then Ummi off to work or I send him to kinder. It's easier to teach him about time, days of the week and the concept of today, tomorrow and yesterday. Sometimes he says "What comes next?" asking me what do we do next.

The nurse also said at this age, we can start using the time-out and sticker reward chart. The time out didn't usually work for Layth because he cries then he wants a hug and he's sorry. Hahaha. But now that he's older perhaps it might work again. Especially now because everytime he gets told off or told no, he'll say "Nak makcik!" (emotional blackmail la tuuu).

The sticker reward chart might be a good thing. At the moment, even the threat of "tak boleh main iPhone" can make him comply to things like going to the toilet for a pee by himself. But only after nagging for a while. Maybe with the sticker chart, he'll get excited and motivated.

He is picking up a lot of sophisticated vocabulary from kinder like recycling, skyscraper, electric. I really love his kinder. They change their layout every week depending on what their main theme of learning is and what the kids like. This week they were learning about Xrays and doctors. So they had real Xray pictures of hands and feet and chest to look at and stethoscopes to play with. (Layth being the son of doctors already knows how to use the stethoscope from a young age heheh!).

Last week they learnt about worms and grasshoppers because the kids found worms and grasshoppers in the garden. So they read books about the animals and drew pictures and labelled the body parts of the animals. So they not only learn that a grasshopper's name is a grasshopper, they also learn that they have 6 legs and an antenna.

Anyway, we tried this method at home too. Once we were reading a book and there's a volcano in it. So we showed him Youtube videos of volcanic eruptions and flowing lava. This was the starting point of teaching him words like explosion, lava, very very hot stones, soot and smoke. He's been pestering me all week to "make" a volcano. Malaslah nak guna papier mache hehehe!

Anyhoo, Layth passed his "exam" and no longer needs to see the maternal & child health nurse anymore. Yippeeeee.