Pooie and Tommy Time

I have a granddaughter who’s name is Gabrielle, we call her Gaba. Gaba is 3 ½ years old and I make sure to spend time with her during the day, just the two of us.

We have a favorite game we call “Pooie and Tommy”. The game requires the locating of “Pooie”, “Tommy”, “Hippity” (TY Beanie Baby rabbits), “Snowbelles” (Beanie Baby bear). And “Pengie” (a 3” stuffed penguin). Then we locate a book named “First 1000 Words” by Hinker Books Pty Ltd 2006. Once we have found all these items we sit on the couch side by side and I place “Pooie”, “Tommy”, “Hippity”, and “Pengy” on my lap and then begin reading through the book. At this point Gaba’s Rule #1 comes in to play. Rule #1 is we always start at the beginning of the book, even if the last time we played we used “Pengie” as a bookmark where we left off.

We the start by looking at each page and discussing each item on the page. I make sure to point to each word next to each picture and say the word out loud. All the time I am talking too the stuffed toys on my lap. Since we have played the game several times, now I point to the word and Gaba says the word out loud. On some of the pages I say “Gaba has this or Gaba likes this, etc” to the toys and when I purposely make a mistake, Gaba quickly corrects me.

There are some specific pages where the stuffed toys come in to play. On page 16, “Food” there is a picture of a fish. Gaba picks up “Pengie” and places “Pengie” on the fish picture like “Pengie” is eating the fish. On page 22, “Vegetable” Gaba picks up “Pooie”, “Tommy”, and “Hippity” and places them on the carrot so they can have a snack. Finally on page 68, “Things” there is a picture of a penguin and Gaba picks up “Pengie” and places “pengie” on the picture saying “Pengie, here is your friend.”

We have a grand time reading through the book and discussing the items on every page. If for some reason we do not get through the entire book, we use “Pengie” as a bookmark so we will know where we left off when we play again. (Of course the next time we play, Rule #1 takes effect as described above.) Every time we play it’s of course different, but always special.

There is nothing in this universe that can replace the time I spend with Gaba.