Crazy Busy!

 If you do not know, we are in the middle of an adoption right now so between paperwork, craft fairs, and making items to sell so we can raise money for our adoption, and homeschooling our teenager, AND we watched our friend's 6 and 4 year old for about eight days while they were out of the country adopting two little boys, it has just been crazy busy around here. 

Finally, the day after Thanksgiving we finally got some things done.

Please excuse the PJs... one great thing about homeschooling is that it can be done at any time. This time it just happened to be right after dinner.

 We worked on coloring to help with those fine motor skills

 We worked with the dobbers

 and painting

 Then we moved to using our cards and following instructions.

I would show each of the cards one at a time before putting them on the table, and telling Veronika and Gavyn what each picture was of. Then I would hide all of them and ask them to give me a certain card. Once I knew they heard what I wanted them to give me, I would put it all on the table and repeat which card I wanted. 

We had to work on them not trying to give me all the cards at once and only one card, but they did well!

Next we worked on puzzles

 and blocks

and finished up with some music!

Some other things that we did that I did not get a picture of was a following directions game. I think we need to play this more often!! Because Veronika and Gavyn spent the first year of their life in an orphanage they never had anyone who would interact with them, so they did not learn how to mimic. 

This is an important skill in life, it helps teach a child to do many things so it is one we are working on. 

Normally a child who was raised in a family would just find joy in copying someone else, but a child who did not learn this was a game needs to have a reward for copying. 

I got out our gluten free crackers and each time Veronika and Gavyn would copy me they were rewarded with a cracker. 

I started off very simply, by patting my head, then patting the table, then waving, and clapping. I tried to do things with my face like blowing, but they are not ready for that and would not copy that. 

I know it will take time, but they will get that. It was great to see them copying me in other ways thou!

We read some books sang some songs and after of doing work for a little over an hour we were finished. I am so proud of them, and so amazed they can sit in one spot and do work for over an hour!! Look out world here they come!

November is here!

Sorry for the lack of posting lately! Veronika had surgery on Oct 25th to have her tonsils and adenoids removed so we put off our preschool until we felt like she was feeling 100%.

Now that she is good to go, we are back in full swing. 

 Fine Motor Work - Coloring with Markers
We have been working hard using markers, crayons, and pencils so they can work on their hand control. Right now Gavyn uses his whole hand to use the markers but I know with more practice he will start to use his hand and fingers like Veronika has started to do.

 Fine Motor Work - Stickers
Working with stickers is great for fine motor skills. It gives hands a work out by having to place the sticker the right way on the paper. It requires a child to work on their pincher grasp to put the sticker on just the right way.

 Fine Motor Work - Stickers

 Reading - Gavyn doing the sign for sleep once he saw the word sleep
We started about six months ago working with reading flash cards. Veronika and Gavyn love to read their cards. Every day I work with them with their cards. The trick is to make it VERY fast, and to make it fun! Always finish before they get bored. That way they will always want to do it again. 

 Signing Daddy
Since neither Veronika and Gavyn are talking we have taught them sign language. This way, even though they can not say the words they are seeing, they can sign them and we are able to see just how much they have learned. Gavyn has about 100 signs, Veronika has about 150.

 Veronika recognized the word clap and started clapping her hands

 Veronika recognized the word wave and started waving

Gavyn spotted a bus on the page and started signing bus
Books are a beloved treasure in our house. Both Veronika and Gavyn love being read to. We read at least 10 books per day. We also have books that they can look through whenever they want throughout the day.

 Reading  "Going on a Bear Hunt" with mommy and acting out some of the parts 

They were  doing the motions for where you say "Oh no, we'll have to go through it!"
When we are doing our preschool, we always break up each activity with music or a dance. This helps keep their interest and their focus. 

In other news....

They decided working on fine motor skills and reading was not enough, so they worked on some gross motor skills...

 Look who figured out how to get up on top of the kitchen table by climbing up the chairs!

They were so proud of themselves they celebrated by hugging each other, lol.