Short One

Our house has been a bit crazy lately planning for our upcoming adoption of two 12 year old girls who have Down syndrome so we have not been able to post as often as I would like. So here are just a couple of things we have been doing lately.

Number Puzzles

 And color sorting! She has gotten so good with her colors that she will usually sign the color before she puts it down. I tried to make it a bit more challenging by putting the red, orange, yellow, and white close to each other but it didn't phase her a bit! She was able to sort the colors all on her own!.

 Matching blocks to the picture

 Mommy asked if she could copy a tower mommy made and she did!

Gavyn did great matching the blocks to the pictures!

 Gavyn worked with both hands to put the beads into the muffin tin cups

We read books ALL the time and one of their favorite books is "We're going on a Bear Hunt". Normally they act out almost the whole entire story while we are reading in the rocking chair, but today since they were sitting so close to each other they were a bit distracted. It was so cute thou, I just had to post it...

 Working on putting puzzles together. The goal was not match the letter to the picture in this case but to build the coordination of putting two pieces together. Up until now, all the pieces just fit inside a puzzle cut out, so actually having to put something together that can not just slide together meant they would have to work to figure out how to insert on piece into the other.

Snowed In

It has been a bit crazy lately, we have been snowed in for the last several days and while that would normally give us more time to work, it has meant everyone has been home, making it harder for Veronika and Gavyn to have the quiet they need to keep all the distractions out so they could focus on their work. 

 One thing we never have to try, is to get them to read books, they LOVE books!! And this is how we will find them several times throughout the day.

 Veronika trying to do the letters in sign language

 Matching colors

 Working on pointing and then giving me the card I have asked for. 

 Gavyn working on color sorting

 Matching letters

 Matching words

 Reading words and then doing the action- Gavyn's turn

now Veronika's turn

 Of course, what would be the point of being snowed in if you could not go out and play in it? Gavyn did not care for the snow at all.

Veronika on the other hand loved it!!

The rest of the time they have just spent playing just like any other little kids. 

They really enjoyed wearing their hats and playing with their baby dolls while having a pretzel picnic.

Welcome to the New Year ~ 2014

In the winter, sometimes you just have to bring the outside in. 

Working on fine motor work. Scooping and pouring is used as a means to develop fine motor skills associated with practical life skills, not to mention the value of sensory experiences in young childhood education.

 Gavyn looking at his touch and feel flash cards. 

Veronika matched the words

Shadow matching. Different colors are telling clues when trying to distinguish between similar objects. Shadow matching challenges a child's visual discrimination skills by asking him to match a full-color picture to its all-black shadow.

 Lacing beads: Manipulating the string in and out of the holes takes a lot of effort for little fingers. It strengthens dexterity, hand-eye coordination, and the pincer grasp.

 

Using clothes pins to work on fine motor skills which are essential for everyday life skills such as writing, eating, manipulating buttons and zippers, and scissor work. 

 Bingo dobbers work fine motor skills. The idea is that you do not paint/color with them, you have to lift them up and down. We did hand over hand to dot the letter "a" and as we dotted it we would say, A says a a a a, until we finished. Then I let them dot all over the paper on their own.

 We also practice our letter sounds the fun way! Allie alligator says a a a, Ellie elephant says e e e. 

 We also work on self help skills. After meals Veronika and Gavyn put away their dishes. They also bring their laundry to the laundry room after they have taken a bath.

Veronika and Gavyn are doing really well in alot of ways. But one area they still struggle in is speech. They can sign over 200 signs, but we still do not have regular words, not even mama. Sometimes a word will just pop out, but then we won't hear it again. Once per month Veronika and Gavyn have speech (we are trying to get this moved up to move than once per month).  We just changed our insurance coverage in hopes that we can get better services than we were getting with our old insurance. 

A Year of Learning

It has been a busy year of learning

We have learned about sharing, taking turns, playing pretend.

We have worked on pouring skills, and learning to drink from a cup

We have experienced sensory with bubbles, water, sand, corn, play dough, bubble wrap, paint, and much more!

We have worked on matching colors, objects, shapes, sizes, and words and counting

We have worked on reading books, and love having books read to us

We have even helped with cooking

We have explored a tree farm, pumpkin patch, zoo, beaches, playgrounds, indoor play parks, and forests

What an exciting year!

Matching, Sorting

Every Day is a Day for Learning

Working on building finger strength for later being able to use scissors

 Reading Books

 

Sometimes schooling is yummy!! 

 Recycle, reduce, reuse!

 We reused soda bottles to practice picking up beads and putting them into the bottles then dumping them out and doing it again!

 Discovering Animals

Some days we are so busy with life that school does not look like school. Some days it looks like a trip to a tree farm where we get to discover all kinds of different animals. Some other days the house is just screaming to be cleaned and so a soda bottle and some beads make for a perfect tool to work on fine motor skills.

Other times we are in a cooking mood and school includes pouring, stirring, or helping make cookies. 

Books are a big deal in our house, we have a bookshelf loaded with books that are a constant source of joy. 

We just started working with clothes pins and practicing taking them off of the edge of a basket. They are brand new so still really stiff and hard to open and close so it is easier to take them off than put them on.

Learning can happen every day no matter what your day looks like!

Month full of crafts

All this month we are working on something called Truth in the Tinsel.

It is all about getting back to WHY we really celebrate Christmas.

Each day we read some passages from the bible and then do a craft to go along with it. 

 

Fine Motor Work - Paper Tearing, Gluing, Coloring

Fine Motor Work- Painting adding Stickers