Stories of Winnie-the-PoohTigger comes to the forest.

I have already told before how much I Love this book. Today we read and play along the chapter in which Tigger comes to the forest.
Having a passion for style, I just do not dare to put it in my words, as it would go so boring, I can not but quote all the key phrases, and it is not easy to make the story shorter, so prepare to read lots of A.A.Milne's text, which is a remarcable reading.

Winnie-the-Pooh woke up suddenly in the middle of the night and listened. Then he got out of bed and lit his candle, and stumped across the room to see if anybody was trying to get into his honey-cupboard, and they weren't, so he stumped back again, blew out his candle, and got into bed. Then he heard the noise again.

At this thrilling moment Tasya can not help getting up and playing along.
She comes to the bookshelves with a torch in her hand saying the words:
What is it? What a strange noise! Who can it be? Is that you, Piglet?
I am very impressed by her play, so I get the candle, light it and let her hold it.

"Is that you, Piglet?" Winnie-the-Pooh said.
But it wasn't.
"Come in, Christopher Robin," he said.
But Christopher Robin didn't.
"Tell me about it to-morrow, Eeyore," said Pooh sleepily. But the noise went on.
"Worraworraworraworra," said Whatever-it-was, and Pooh found that he wasn't asleep after all.
"What can it be?" He thought.
He got out of bed and opened his front door.
"Hallo!" said Pooh.
"Hallo!" said Whatever-it-was.
"Oh, there you are! Come here."
So Whatever-it-was came here, and in the light of the candle he and Pooh looked at each other.
"I'm Pooh."
"I'm Tigger"
"Oh," said Pooh, for he had never seen an animal like this before.
"Well", said Pooh, "it's the middle of the night, which is a good time for going to sleep. And to-morrow morning we'll have some honey for breakfast. Do Tiggers like honey?"
"They like everything", said Tigger cheerfully.

From this moment we swap the roles, now I am Winnie-the-Pooh, and she is Tigger, and it is needless to say that it is just because she is very bouncy.
I take my gown (which serves us a tablecloth here) and put it on the stool to make Pooh's table. We are going to have honey for breakfast here.

"Excuse me a moment, but there's something climbing up your table", and with one loud WORRAWORRAWORRA he jumped at the end of the tablecloth, pulled it to the ground, wrapped himself up in it three times, rolled to the other end of the room, and after a terrible struggle, got his head into the daylight again, and said cheerfully: "Have I won?"

Yeah, she plays well this struggle with my gown, all children love rolling, don't they?

"That's my tablecloth" said Pooh as he began to unwind Tigger.
"I wondered what it was," said Tigger.
"It goes on the table and you put things on it".
"Then why did it try to bite me when I wasn't looking?"
"I don't think it did," said Pooh.
"It tried, but I was too quick for it."

And here comes my favourite epsode, may be because my daughter happens to be very fastidious about her food. She loves this episode too, because she likes to use her mimics and to produce different sounds.

Pooh put the cloth back on the table, and he put a large honey-pot on the cloth, and they sat down to breakfast. And as soon as they sat down, Tigger took a large mouthfull of honey... and he looked up at the ceiling with his head on one side, and made exploring noises with his tongue, and considering noises, and what-we-got-here noises... and then he said in avery decided voice:
"Tiggers don't like honey".
"Oh!" said Pooh, and tried to make it sound Sad and Regretful. "I thought they liked everything".
"Everything except honey", said Tigger.
...So after breakfast they went round to see Piglet, and Pooh explained as they went that Piglet was a Very Small Animal, who didn't like bouncing, and asked Tigger not to be too bouncy just at first. And Tigger, who had been hiding behind trees and jumping out on Pooh's shadow when it wasn't looking, said that Tiggers were only bouncy before breakfast, and as soon as they had had a few haycorns they became Quiet and Refined.

And here we play Catch My Shadow game. I move all ways trying to make my shadow difficult to catch and Tasya chases it.

So by-and-by they knocked at the door of piglet's house. (We use a baby toy as Piglet)
"Hallo, Pooh," said Piglet.
"Hallo, Piglet, this is Tigger. They like haycorns," said Pooh, "so that's what we've come for, because poor Tigger hasn't had any breakfast yet."
"Help yourself" said Piglet and moved coser to Pooh and felt much braver, and said, "So you're Tiger? Well, well!"
I put the baby toy next to my side and press it tight to show how scary little Piglet is.

But Tigger said nothing because his mouth was full of haycorns.
Again Tasya makes her exploring noises and what-have-we-got-here noises and says:
"No! I don't like haycorns!"
"But you said Tigers like everything except honey!" - I exclaim.
"And haycorns" - said Tigger.

And Piglet who was rather glad that Tiggers didn't like haycorns, said,
"what about thistles?"
"Thistles," said Tigger, "is what Tiggers like best!"
"Then let's go along and see Eeyore," said Piglet.

And I pick up a toy, Tasya's black-ship toy, which looks rather gloomy and it plays the role of Eeyore.
"Hallo, Eeyore!" said Pooh. "This is Tigger."
"What is?“ said Eeyore.
I play Eeyore part, so I let the black ship "walk" around Tigger one way and the other way with the words: "what did you say it was?"
"Tigger, he's just come." explained Piglet.

And the next phrase produced by Eeyore is sidesplitting:
"When is he going?"

“Dear Eeyore, the thing is my new stripy friend had not had any breakfast yet. And as Tiggers always eat thistles we have come to see you." Pooh explaines.
"Come this way, Tigger", Eeyore led the way to the most thistly-looking patch of thistles that ever was, and waved a hoof at it. "Help yourself, Tigger,"
"Are these really thistles?" Tigger looked anxiously at Pooh.
"Yes" said Pooh.
"What Tiggers like best?"
"That's right", said Pooh.
"I see," said Tigger and took a large mouthful and he gave a large crunch.
"Ow!" said Tigger. He sat down and put his paw in his mouth. "Hot!" mumbled Tigger.
"No Tiggers do not like thistles!"
"But you said that Tiggers like everything except honey and haycorns." - said Pooh.
"And thistles".
"What are we going to do?" asked Piglet.
"Come along, we'll go and see Kanga. She's sure to have lots of breakfast for you".

Tasya likes to play kangaroo, he usually takes a teddy and tucks it in her tights as if it is her joey sitting in a pouch.

Kanga offered Tigger to look in the cupboard and see what he would like. But the more Tigger put his nose into this and his paw into that, the more things he found which Tiggers didn't like. And when he had found everything in the cupboard and couldn't eat any of it, he said to Kanga, "What happens now?"
But Kanga was standing by the Roo, watching him have his Extract of Malt.
"What is it?" asked Tigger.
"Roo's strengthenig medicine, he hates it".
So Tigger came closer and suddenly he took one large gollop, and, with a sudden jump of surprise Kanga said, “oh, Tigger, dear!" - but the malt had gone.

"He's taken my medicine! He's taken my medicine! He's taken my medicine!" sings Tasya happily for Roo.

Then Tigger looked up at the ceiling, and closed his eyes, and his tongue went round and round his chops, and a peacefut smile came over his face as he said. "So that's what Tiggers like!"

Mommy, speak nonsense!

My daughter is 3+3.
This time I want to tell about Tasya's preferences when reading and playing with her mom. When she is with me she switches to English which is an important achievement for me. But it was suggested to switch to Russian when there is daddy around not to make him feel out-of-the-way. Tasya could not accept this rule last time. She insisted on going on reading in English. She kept asking me questions in English but I answered in Russian trying to switch to Russian together. She protested then and cried: No! No! Don't speak with daddy! Speak nonsense! - I was in a little shock. This was a perfect prase she could produce in her age.

My husband asked me to translate, as the words seemed familiar to him. He said that she could say nothing of the kind in Russian. Yes, he was right, she could never say: "говори бессмыслицу" no child of three could speak in these words in Russian. But please, do not suspect me in unbalanced education with English predominance, it was not the point. The point was that she had watched too much of Peppa Pig, and there was an episode where the daddy Pig picked up the phone and it spoke French, and as daddy Pig knew no French, he said: The phone is speaking nonsense!

I analysed the situation and worked out that Tasya had difficulty to ask me to speak English. Or not to speak Russian. She could not name the languages. And this was a perfect example how kids could express the ideas in their own way.
Now I think I should pay more attention to naming languages.

Winnie-the-Pooh rescues Piglet

While I was sitting and writing my last post about Star-Belly Sneetches Tasya was involved in some game.
I often sit in the armchair with my legs lifted, resting my feet on the arm of a sofa, which makes a bridge for Tasya to play. It was only when she climbed up my lap that I paid attention to her. There she was sitting on a bridge, dangling her legs. And there was a collection of different jars on my lap too.
What are you doing, Tasya? - I asked.
- I am sitting on the branch like Winnie-the-Pooh and this is my honey.

Whooosh! I was taken away in her game! Yes, she played on (up) the last chapter of Winnie-the-Pooh that we had read just before her nap time.

"Let's start from the beginning. It rained, and it rained, and it rained.
And here is Piglet in his tree house all surrounded by waters." - Tasya climbed up on a chair and cried "Help! Help!" Then she grabbed a piece of paper - the message! (Missage - originally). I had to find a bottle with a cork urgently. A little bottle with large mouth decorated as a vase served well for it. And we used a piece of paper which I winded with elastic round the mouth - this was how we corked the bottle.
"You may throw it now and watch it floating away from your house."

So she threw it on the carpet.
”...splash! - and in a little while it bobbled up again on the water; and he watched it floating slowly away at the distance , until his eyes ached with looking (...) and then suddenly he knew that he would never see it again and that he had done all that hecould do to save himself."

Then I made the "bridge" between the armchair and the sofa again. We recollected all the jars on my lap and there she was sitting on the branch of a tree, dangling her legs, eating honey jar after jar.
"There is no more honey left by your side, what should you do now?    look around, what do you see?"
"Honey!" - shouted Tasya, and plunged into the water.
"what is it? A bottle, an empty bottle?
”"Bother!" said Pooh, as he opened it. "All that wet for nothing. What's that bit of paper doing?"

"Message" - said Taya
"Yes, but can you read it? No, you can not, you sould go to meet Christopher Robin then. But how?
"If a bottle can float, then a jar can float, and if a jar floats, I can sit on the top of it, if it is a very big jar."

We took not a jar but a ball, Tasya tried to balance with her belly on it.

"All balls have to have a name, so I shall call mine Floating bear."
...For a little while Pooh and the Floating Bear were uncertain as to which of them was meant to be on top, but after trying one or two different positions, they setteled down with the Floating Bear underneath and Pooh triumphantly astride it, paddling vigorously with his feet.“

Pooh arrived at Christopher Robin's place and they dashed into each other's arms. - We rolled for a while cuddling on the sofa, Tasya's favourite part!

"How did you get here, Pooh?"
"On my boat", said Pooh proudly. "I had a very important Missage sent me in a bottle, and owing to having got some water in my eyes, I couldn't read it, so I brought it to you. On my boat".

"The message is from Piglet! He needs a rescue! We must rescue him at once!"
"But your boat is too small fot two of us. It is too small for three of us with Piglet when we shall be going back. What shall we do?"

And Pooh said, "We might go in your umbrella".
"What a good idea!"
We got seated on a big cushion. And travelled across the room to Piglet's house. There we picked up a teddy bear who played Piglet's part this time:)
"Hooray! piglet is rescued!"

”And as that is really the end of the story, I think I shall stop here.”

Star-Belly Sneetches

Sneetches
Мне очень полюбилась книжка Теодора Гейзеля "The Sneetches and other stories". Впрочем, сначала мы набрели на мультфильм, а не на книгу. Мне очень захотелось поиграть в этих существ с Тасей. Я вырезала из картона звездочки и приклеила одну скотчем к футболке Тасе на животик. Ей эта звездочка очень понравилась. Now you are not a plain Sneetch any more, you are a Star-Belly Sneetch!

The Sneetches is a book about 2 different types of Sneetches:  Plain Sneetches and Sneetches with Stars on their bellies.  The Star-Belly Sneetches think that they are better than the plain sneetches and often exclude them from playing ball and participating in marshmallow roasts.

Мarshmallow - a new word and a new taste for Taya. She will know them well from now on.
It works better if other sences are engaged in learning.
We took marshmallows and picked them with salty bread sticks to roast them above the pretend campfire. Only Star-Belly sneetches were allowed to join in. We stuck the stars to her favorite toys and had our Marshmallow roast party.

#drseussweek, #drseuss, #seuss, #sneetches