The natural learning processes of babies and children is of endless fascination to me.  Observing it makes me more and more keen on autonomous education and I feel very certain that we will continue our parenting philosophy of being led by our off-spring forever

Cotton-tail is currently learning how to eat solid foods.  As regular readers of this blog will know, we unintentionally did ‘baby-led weaning’ with Flopsy (she refused anything off a spoon except yoghurt) and, having learnt more about it, did it on purpose with Mopsy.  Cotton-tail is now 6.5 months and has been joining us at the table in her tripp trapp high-chair (no tray) for a few weeks (of course she’s been with us at mealtimes since she was born, but usually sleeping in someone’s arms or wriggling on someone’s lap).  She is learning to eat in this way:

1. Learning how to pick up food, and, more specifically, learning how to pick up different types of food.  She loves it that cucumber slides around and feels cold but that potato mashes up in her hand

2. Then she has learnt how to get it into her mouth.  Her hand control has developed enough for her to make sure she picks the food up in such a way that there is enough food ‘visible’ to get some into her mouth.  She is also starting to learn how to put food from one hand into another to make it more accessible.

3. Next she is learning how to bite pieces off what she’s got in her hand - a very pleasing experience, particuarly when every food does different things: Brocolli kind of breaks up into tiny little pieces which feel very interesting in her mouth; pasta feels slippery

4. Her current plan is to master the art of moving food around in her mouth with her tongue.  Lots of gagging involved in this phase; and spitting food out onto the table, but she’s getting there.

5. The next thing she has to learn is how to mash the food up so it’s easy to swallow.  We’re beginning to see less food on the floor after mealtimes so I’m guessing she’s doing this a little already.  Her poos have yet to change, though, so she’s obviously not doing it very much!

The theory suggests that all this falls into place at about the same time her gut is ready to digest it all effectively and safely, when it’s less permeable to allergens and bacteria.  I don’t need to worry about her lacking in nutrients due to the lack of solid food intake because she’s still breastfed on demand.  If she’s anything like her sisters, by the time she gets to 8 or 9 months she’ll be eating food like her Daddy (albeit a bit messier!).

 Mopsy is currently learning how to settle herself in the night.  Flopsy is the only one of our babies to experience any sleep-training and that only consisted of a grand total of two minutes controlled crying and a week’s worth of patting/rocking to sleep at 5 months old in the misguided belief that it was bad for her to learn to fall asleep at the breast.  When we stopped all that nonsense, life got much easier and, miraculously, Flopsy has been falling asleep without breastfeeding for at least 18 months and sleeping right through the night most nights; only needing a loo visit and a cuddle to settle if she does wake. 

Mopsy is doing exactly what Flopsy did.  Breastfeeding no longer gets her to sleep. It does switch her mind off and start the process, but the action of suckling now keeps her from falling fast asleep most of the time.  So we feed, and then she rolls over and falls asleep herself while I cuddle her (when evenings work out well, that’s what happens - I won’t go into that whole thing now, though!).  Most of the time when she wakes in the night (two or three times), she now rolls over mumbling a half-hearted request for a breastfeed (yak yak, she calls it) but falls asleep before I get to feed her. 

The next step will be settling before she even asks for milk.  However we’ve upset the process a bit now by decorating their room for them and pushing the two single beds together.  They now both want to sleep in there, which is lovely for them.  And it’s very pleasing to me to note that when Mopsy does wake, she doesn’t cry for me - she’s not scared of not sleeping next to me - she just calls ‘Mummy’ and me or DH go and get her and bring her back into our bed where she settles very quickly.  It does mean that she’s woken up more than she would if she were stirring next to me so she does need feeding to get back to sleep. 

When Flopsy did this, it was the start of the weaning process…maybe I’ll start thinking about weaning Mopsy but I don’t really feel like I want to like I did when Flopsy was this age.  Mopsy is much happier than Flopsy was to have feeds that last a few seconds (more a cursory checking in with me, than an actual need to feed); and she doesn’t ask as much as Flopsy did.  We’ll just see how it goes for now.

Flopsy is currently having a ‘learning to read’ phase.  She’s had lots of these during her life so far.  The early ones were things like a desire to learn her letters; or wanting to sit with me with a book and tell me her own version of the story; or asking me to point out the words in whatever book I’m reading and tell her what they say.  At the moment she’s bringing books to us and asking us to read the words with her.  Her favourite book ever is one she discovered a couple of years ago at the back of a bookcase.  It’s called Daily Light and is a collection of Bible readings - one for every day of the year.  Now no one could describe us as devoted Christians, but I’ve been brought up a Christian and my Grandparents would love it if we went to church regularly and read the Bible.  They gave me this book when I was 15.  It’s small - about 8cm wide; 13cm tall and 2cm thick and Flopsy has fallen in love with it.  It has proper thin pages like a Bible has, which I think appeals to her.  We’ve never read to her from it, so she has no idea what it says (I think!), but she loves it - ‘reads’ it when we’re reading our books in the evening etc.  At the moment she often brings it to me asking me what the words say - she doesn’t want me to read it to her, but wants me to point to the words and if she knows them she reads them and if she doesn’t, I do. 

She’s also very keen on reading one of the bedtime stories they choose every night and that’s really enjoyable.  We have a collection of Puddle Lane books - mostly bought from car boot sales to satisify my nostalgia! - and she is also really enjoying reading those with me.  I read the adult’s side of the page; then she reads the child’s side; then she gets bored and wants me to read it all. 

These reading bouts take place randomly during the day and very frequently happen at 10pm when we’re reading in bed before going to sleep.  Another reason to be glad she won’t be going to school - she can learn to read in her own time and whenever and whatever she likes

PS.  All three girls are also learning heaps of other things all the time, of course, but these things seem to be what they’re focussing on at the moment.