Friday

The last few days we've stayed pretty busy. Wednesday. Therapy as usually, checking on, to church. I have to stop and point out what patience and compassion they are building by being with my grandparents. Both the girls are learning to be so sweet and helpful to grandma. These relationships and character traits are so important in my book.
Thursday we went to the Green's to play. I took the dishwasher box for the girls to play in. They had so much fun and played with it differently than I had thought they would. I was thinking it would be a house, but they were much more creative. The little girls got in and Hannah turned the box up, they all thought that was hilarious. By the time they were done the end was torn open and it was more of a tunnel than a house. So... playing, disagreeing, making up, etc. Then we all went to lunch together. I was most touched by how Hannah helped Alex eat her lunch. It's very hard to eat a taco anyway, so lots of time I help Alex with it. Hannah was sitting between us, and before I knew it they were getting it done on their own. Hannah was helping Alex eat and they got it done. They figured it out on their own. Then... to therapy for the afternoon and back home again.
Today is a stay at home day. Emma found the crayons and wanted to color, so I pulled out to Christmas coloring books from last year. I couldn't believe how long they sat and colored together. Then they moved from the office floor, to the living room floor, to the couch. They worked so hard and got along really well most of the morning.
Other random stuff. We've been singing a lot. Every song I can think of. The current favorites are still "It's raining, It's pouring" the "ABCs". New ones are mainly Christmas songs. They love hand motions to go with songs. It really keeps Emma tuned in. I've also found that I get some great one on one time with Emma for 45 minutes on Tuesday and Thursday while Alex has that extra therapy. We sing, count, do ABC puzzles, and snuggle. What else? We've been counting backwards from 10 & counting to 100 by 10s. Emma's ABCs are getting pretty good. She will tell me, "Q is for quilt" even when the picture shown isn't a quilt. Memorization I'm sure, but she remembers and recognized several letters on her own. Alex's knowledge is also growing in that area.
A book I'm reading (several actually) on homeschooling refers to these sort of things are learning hooks. I had never thought of it that way before. They may not have a full understanding of something that we do, but they are establishing learning hooks to add info on to later and build their understanding of that subject or topic. I really see that happening in our learning lifestyle over the last 6 months. It's amazing and wonderful!