"we do homework"

This afternoon I watched as the girls went through flash cards together. Alex looked up at me and said, "We do homework!" Emma would hold up a card and ask Alex "What this?" Then whey would practice saying the word as clearly as possible. I love that they are 'teaching' each other.
Yesterday during children's church Alex drew a picture of our family. I was so proud! For the record, mommy was the tallest, but daddy was drawn in a different color than us girls :) She even drew a sunshine in the top corner of the picture. For any whp don't know, laving the fine motor control to draw 4 stick figures and a sunshine is a big deal for Alex. Yay Alex!
Last week we continued practicing the use of pronouns... he, she, they,etc. I point them out in normal conversation, but also to specific activities such as asking questions about a book we are reading and encouraging their response in sentence form (as opposed to one word answers). Example...
"What is the boy holding?"
"He is holding a book."
We are still spending lots of time outside. That play time seems to encourage their imaginations. Examples... Emma was using sidewalk chalk to 'paint' Alex's fingernails today. Only moments later Emma was using that chalk as a tool to work under the hood of Alex's Mustang. They play shopping by exchanging grass and rocks as items and money. Alex places and 'order', Emma delivers a rock and says "Here! Give me money!" and then Alex pays her in grass. I love it!
Alex also showed off at therapy last week by writing her own name on her paper during speech.
I almost forgot... field trip to the county fair with Nonnie and Uncle Pat. We walked through the buildings and looked at all the plants, crafts, and animals. My girls are no strangers to farm animals, but having the opportunity to see so many animals and how they are the same and different is wonderful. Although Alex now thinks we need a rabbit and Emma was a bit disappointed that there were no monkeys :)

play play play

We have been doing LOTS of playing lately... it is just too pretty to sit inside all day, so we have been spending lots of time in the yard. Not all is lost though... their bodies and imaginations get a work out when we are outside. We find bugs, we pick flowers, we play with the dogs. Alex loves driving her mustang and Emma pushes her little cozy coupe. For some reason they are both loving picking grass and loading up their cars. Sometimes they are just playing, sometimes they pretend that the grass is something specific (things they went shopping for). For example, they love to get in their cars and tell me "Bye Bye, see you later!" and then head off. When I ask where they are going the answers range from: to therapy, shopping, to church, to Poppy's house, to Nonnie's house, to Ms. Lisa's house, etc. Today I think they were playing drive through because Alex was 'ordering' cookies and ice cream from Emma. They must have learned this at the park last week while playing with a few other little kids on the playground. So, while these things show some creativity, I am still trying to encourage their little minds as much as possible. I ask them where they are going shopping, what they are shopping for, if they will get me certain things, etc. In addition to all of these great things about playing outside, Alex can sit in her car and play for hours without ever having to fall down.
We still read at least a book or two every night before bed. The Three Little Pigs seems to be a great book to read slowly and ask lots of questions, so we keep reading that one on a regular basis. Alex pays close enough attention and is now able to answer simple questions about what will or what already happened in the story. Ms. Heidi has been reading her Goldilocks and the Three Bears in therapy and last night I was asking Alex about the story. I asked her what it was about and she was able to tell me the main characters. When I asked what happened she said "it broke", and after some more prodding from me (like I didn't know what happened) she giggled and told me Goldilocks broke the chair. I'm so happy she is making this progress. Emma is mainly concerned with getting to turn the page when we read, but at least now she is willing to wait until I read one page before she turns it. In the not so distant past we would have tiffs over her wanting to turn the pages at her whim. Progress!
Oh, labeling ordinary objects around the house doesn't seem to have helped with word recognition in any way. It does, however, make people think I'm crazy when they come over and see what I've done! So, the labels are coming down and we will just continue our repetition and working on Alex's prereading skills. She is having a full neuro-development evaluation on September 22-23 at Children's Mercy Hospital. Once that eval is complete the doctor may be able to give me some insight on the most important things to work on and any specific approaches that may be most helpful to Alex (and to Emma)... based on her developmental level (which we already know is quite delayed) and what will be the most important to learn before she loses the ability to gain skills, as well as what will help her the most once she begins losing abilities in the future.

The Starting Line

The official home school forms are submitted and the school year has officially begun. In the last week we have spent some time with the workbook, trying to become more aware of letter sounds at the beginning of words. We say the word, emphasize the sounds, and identify the letter that starts the word. Alex has been practicing writing her name a lot and doing great. Emma can't write her full name but writes the 'E' (usually upside down) and is so proud of herself. We have played Candyland and I was suprised at how upset Alex got when she didn't win... No big deal though, I'm happy to foster competition... I just want to teach them both to be good sports. The only way to do that is to lose now and then. We have played the Memory game also. Yesterday we also pulled out the play dough.
Last Saturday we spent the day working on the yard. The girls helped me pull weeds and plant new flowers. Drew found a little frog in the grass and we all took turns holding him and checking him out. One day we were headed to my grandpa's and saw a big turtle making his way across the parking lot. I stopped and opened the van doors so the girls could see and we sat and watched as he made it into the grass. Sometimes the best learning opportunities come unexpected. We have also had several play dates and played outside a lot. The weather has been so beautiful! I also value the time the girls have playing with Lorelai and Mollie on Wednesdays. It is a safe and intimate setting for them to play with friends, without me.
I am infinitely blessed to be home with my girls and so thankful for the opportunity to be mommy and teacher.

Great Stuff

Since returning from our vacation (which included the girls' first trip to the beach, educational in itself) we have done lots of fun stuff. Last week we spent a day at the Tulsa Zoo. The girls were so excited to see the animals! Each time we go it is a new experience, there is so much to see and learn about there. The girls rode a camel and there are pictures... but Christin refuses to turn those pictures because she too is riding that camel :) The days before and after our zoo trip we read animal books and it has turned into something of a unit study because on Monday we went to the safari in Gentry with the Hardins. A fun field trip with our very own preschool teacher! The safari is great in a different way because there is so much hands on. We saw kangaroos with joeys in their pouches (and got to pet them), petted the goats and pot bellied pigs, loved on baby monkeys and geunie pigs, and even got to pet a lion cub! Alex was having SO much fun that I'm sure she would have stayed all day had I been willing. This weekend we are going to Ft. Sill to be with Drew and plan to make a trip to the Wildlife Refuge to visit the prairie dog town in particular. Just another piece of this unit study that seems to have found us.
On a more academic note, we have been drawing (got to work those fine motor skills) and spending time on pre-reading skills. I decided to take a cue from ESL and label things around the house. I have labeled the door, wall, chair, table, etc so that the girls can become familiar with the words in direct relation to the object. Emma has rediscovered the magna doodle, so we have done a lot of our alphabet work there. They ask me to draw a certain picture, I do, and then we write and sound out the word.
More developmental stuff... above/below, inside/outside, thick/thin, etc.
Both girls, Emma especially, are making great strides in language therapy. Emma is frequently saying the 's' on the end of plural and possesive words. She is also using pronouns much better... "her", "his", etc. Using the gender correct pronoun is something they have really been working on and I try to encourage regularly.
Our vacation has also provided a great opportunity to encourage their story telling ability. I am trying to ask open ended questions and encourage them to tell me about things. Emma seems to want to give the answer she thinks I'm looking for (usually "Mickey Mouse" regardless of the question) and I'm really trying to get her to elaborate and give her recollection or opinion. That is getting better. Alex is doing great with that. I'm having a great time listening to Alex and enjoying my conversations with her over this and other subjects.

Summer

We take time to smell the flowers...

...play in the water...

...and even go fishing!

I have a picture of the girls painting, but I took their shirts off to save the clothes... so those pictures aren't blog appropriate :)
I heard on the news today that children lose a large amount of academic knowledge over the summer break that has to be refreshed and retaught when the new school year begins. We really strive to continue our learning regardless of the calender. We do spend lots of time playing and having fun, but still make time for academics. The girls are always curious about letters and we continue to take the time to identify letters and 'read' words where ever we find them... menus, signs, etc. This evening Alex asked to do homework. When I asked her what she would like to do she said, "Play a game. Pizza game." I bought a great game for $3 at Walmart a few months ago and the girls love it. It is mainly for the purpose of listening skills. Each of the girls have a cardboard pizza and 15 or 20 cardboard coins with toppings (few of which are actual pizza toppings) on them. I place my order for my pizza, with two or three items, and the girls find the correct coins and make my pizza. This is also great for finding a single object in a group. Tonight I made sure to choose 'toppings' that started with the same letter. "I would like 'pepperoni' and a 'pretzel' on my pizza please." Pointing out what letter the toppings begin with and emphasizing the sound.
Then we played CandyLand. We do fine with taking turns, so this game is good for colors (Emma specifically). For Alex, identifying the color isn't difficult, but she wants to skip to any (blue) square as opposed to the next (blue) square... so we worked on that. I am finding that any of these games that require the simplest fine motor skills are becoming quite difficult. Even picking a card from the pile is now hard for Alex because two fingers on her left hand (the good hand) are now drawn up. We keep practicing though.

Good morning

What's this? I am remembering to blog? I found a note that my Aunt Linda sent to me last summer. She has home schooled her four children from the beginning and I value her advice. She says that at this point the most important thing to focus on is reading. Once they can read, the rest will come so much easier. Of course, have fun with math and science, but don't fret over it just yet. Her other advice is to remember that kids Alex and Emma's age can only be expected to sit and focus for 15-30 minutes at a time. This is something I have learned on my own over the last year and a half. We started out doing good to sit and work for 10 minutes, not we can spend half an hour working before we really need a break.
Yesterday Alex found the Hooked on Phonics workbooks. We haven't worked with them in a while, so that is what we used this morning. We started with hooked on Phonics a year and a half ago, but haven't stuck strictly to the program... just used it as a guide and aid. So this morning we reviewed the pre-reading letter book. The girls did great. We are oh so close to 100% letter recognition for both girls. Our hang ups are b/d, V/Y, l/I. Then we moved on to a few pages of letter sounds. We went through and said each letter, the sound, and a word that starts with it. That kind of repetition seems to be very helpful with Alex and Emma. Then we concentrated on 'm' and 'n'. Not sure why Hooked on Phonics put these right next to each other, so confusing for little ones. Maybe that was the point, to hear the difference. Anyway, there were three pictures of 'm' words with the word written below it. We pointed out the 'm', said the sound, then the word. The next page has six pictures, we say the word and listen if it starts with the 'm' sound. Same thing with 'n'. Alex really did very well with this and I have learned that while Emma is mostly quiet, she is soaking it all in. That is pretty well how she learned her ABC's. So, by this time Alex was tired and getting distracted so we called it good for now. Maybe do a bit more later, may just wait for therapy this afternoon. I'm so proud of the girls for loving to learn. It is never a fight. If anything, the fight comes when they get too tired to concentrate but still want to work. Alex particularly gets frustrated when she wants to keep going but can't.

May

So Drew was home for most of the month of May and it was wonderful. While he was here we finger painted, planted flowers, worked in the yard, discovered some baby birds, painted the house, played games, read books, went fishing, worked on the boat, had a yard sale, had normal therapy, two Kansas City doctor trips, etc. The girls participate in most everything we do so there was lots of learning taking place. Lots of exploring and discovering and experiencing new things. Since Drew is back at Ft. Sill we are back to our normal routine. Some 'formal' school work and play dates in the mornings and therapy in the afternoons.
What the girls are doing right now:
Alex wants to 'read' everything. She always points to writing (wherever it is) and says, "Let's do this!" So we identify every letter, sound it out where appropriate, say the word, then read the sentence as a whole. While she isn't close to reading on her own, the desire is still there and we are still nurturing it.
We are still doing lots of math throughout our day. Counting objects and simple addition and subtraction. Both girls participate in this and love it.
Imaginations are continuing to grow. The latest pretend game is taking their babies to the doctor. Emma is all about that and Alex goes right along. They take their babies to the doctor, make them take naps, go shopping, to church, and back home. Guess that sums up what our life is like :)
Emma is finally getting her colors down, a handful of them anyway. Brown, pink and yellow are consistent right now. Don't know why those three stick with her, but they are her favorites.
Alex is also drawing a lot on her own lately. We used to have to prompt and encourage her to draw stick figures, etc. Now she sits with a piece of paper or the magna doodle and draws on her own. She mainly draws people and the sun. She drew a picture the other day and told me it was her family. She is always very specific about who is who in her pictures and she always wants me to write the names of each person.
So kids are getting out of school for the summer now, but we will continue doing what we do. Our schedule isn't a strict 8-3, five days a week thing anyway... so we have to plans to halt learning until the fall. That being said, Alex will officially be a kindergartner in the fall so once that time rolls around we may get a little more serious about the time we dedicate to school work. I need to get our letter of intent (for home schooling) prepared to turn into the school district and in the fall we will look into doing some activities with the home schooling group here.

ABC

Busy week last week. We took Alex to CMH in KC for an MRI and lumbar puncture. She did great, as always. Despite the crazy week we did a bit of learning here and there. In the waiting room at the hospital we did ABC flash cards. I was really shocked to realize that Emma knows most all of her letters (I already knew Alex was close to having them all)! We've continued working on that and it is going great. I made a point to read for a while with the girls last night. Reading time has been a bit neglected lately because of the crazy schedule and being so tired before bed. Also, Alex has gone from drawing a stick figure when asked to and is now drawing pictures of our family just for fun! I love it! She draws a stick figure for each of us and sometimes even adds the sun shine. She loves if we watch her work and then wants us to write the names of each person beside her picture. She's also using a few new phrases that she wasn't using a few weeks ago...
"Let me do this real quick"
"Just let me..."
"I no remember this place before"
Funny how the simple things and phrases mean so much.
Emma is asking lots of questions lately and right now she asks "Who you talking for?" a lot. I'm trying to consistently remind her that it is "Who are you talking to?" Still, the fact that she is showing curiosity and verbalizing it is great.
One of our current goals is to be able to retell a familiar story. I would definitely say they can both do that. Before bed it is the Goodnight Book, they both 'read' the book before bed. Other times it is on their own. Emma especially sits and looks at books and I can hear her 'reading' the story as she flips through pages.

Busy week

So, the week has been busy. I had a doctor appointment Monday afternoon so the girls spend an hour with Grandpa and did very well. I was so glad they didn't give him a hard time. I think the time was good for all three of them. I took the girls with me to Ginny's funeral on Tuesday morning. Alex had gotten upset a few days before when I told her that Ms. Ginny might be going to heaven, so I was a little afraid to tell her when Ginny died. But, she took it very well. I just said, "Ms. Ginny went to heaven last night. Who else do you know that is in heaven?" She answered, "Grandma." And that was about it for that conversation. Before the funeral I explained that we were going to church to have a funeral for Ms. Ginny. I asked why we had a funeral at church and she answered, "God." Short, sweet and true. The were pretty good and we came home after the service so they could go to therapy. That evening we went to Springdale to see Mollie's first grade play. They had a lot of fun watching Mollie and all the kids and thought the school was "COOL!" Carrie took us to her classroom afterward and the girls got to look around and explore. Carrie even showed them the Hermit crab. Lots of fun and I'm glad we went. Mollie was adorable as the farmer's wife in the program and she had fun showing the girls around the school.
Wednesday Lisa was sweet enough to keep the girls during my second doctor appointment. The girls got to play together, Lisa took A & E to therapy, and then they all went to the ballpark for MG and Hannah's softball game. A full day!
Today Alex had her pre-op doctor appointment for next week's procedures in KC. She did great and we had time to play and learn a bit while we were waiting for our turn. We do that a lot. Learn where we are I mean. In restaurants we identify letters and words on the menu or table top, we stop to look at signs in the store, we talk about the weather (especially this week!), etc. In the doctor's office we were searching the room and toys for certain shapes. It was fun to watch them discover that there were circles (squares, etc.) on all kinds of things in the room. We've also been working on colors more, for Emma's sake. Today she identified yellow and green correctly! I was so excited for her! We continue to observe and name shapes, colors, letters, numbers, etc. every day. Another thing we work into the day is math. Lots of simple addition lately... for example at lunch the other day we took the sweetener packets out and did some math. "If I have two pink packets and two white packets, how many do I have all together?" Lots of that sort of thing, and both girls really like doing that. I know we aren't to the "What is two plus two stage", but we are learning the process of addition and subtraction. I'm still loving homeschooling them and I'm proud of how hard they work, especially Alex. Seeing Carrie's classroom made me wish I had all of her resources (and I know she would let me dig through things whenever I wanted), but I still feel confident in being their teacher. The process of learning is amazing and I'm so thankful to be sharing it with my girls.

Letters

This morning Emma found a package of flash cards that had been given to us. We had never used them because they are sight words and I didn't think we were to that point yet, but we gave it a try. There were 25 common sight words (a, the, I, she, he, etc.) It was actually great because we named the letters (they did, with occasional help), we said the word, and took turns using the word in full sentences. Great letter identification (lower case) and sentence speaking practice. And the sight word thing can't hurt anything.
This afternoon Alex had PT. Yesterday they each had ST and PT. Church tonight.
Have a play date scheduled for the park tomorrow. We are planning a trip to Mollie's school next week to see her first grade program. The girls should love that! Drew will be home in a couple of weeks and he is hoping that we can take the girls fishing. That should be an experience! I'm hoping that when we take Alex to KC for her MRI that we can go back to the Wonderscope kids center, there is so much to do and learn there.

Math

I can't seem to recap what we've done since my last blog, I've really got to get better at blogging every day. Drew was home this past week and we didn't do much in the way of school work anyway. But today...
I got all excited last night because Julie e mailed me and asked for some homeschooling info. Lorelai will be starting Kindergarten in a little over a year and she wants to start working with her more. So, I got to share some of my infinite teaching wisdom! (Did you detect my sarcasm?)
Anyway, in thinking over some things for her, I pulled up the Kindergarten readiness list again. I went through last night and marked off the things that we are doing well with and highlighted the things that we will continue working on.
So, today we pulled out some manipulatives and got busy. I would pick up one shape and ask Emma to pick one that was the same. Check. Both girls can do that. I would make a pattern and the girls took turns picking the shape or color that came next. Did pretty well with that. More/Less. Do I have more circles or triangles, etc.? That one needs more work. Then we worked on simple addition. If I have two triangles and three circles, how many shapes do I have all together? Did really well with that. As long as we have the visuals, and of course they count out the total, but still... this first step is going well. Then they did puzzles. Alex does them completely independently and Emma needs only minimal help. Good fine motor and problem solving practice. Then Aunt Jessica showed up and we played the Candy Land Castle game. Taking turns, matching shapes, etc. Then just fun stuff. Right now they are playing with big Legos. I just asked Alex was she was building and she said a castle. I love to hear an original answer as opposed to a generic or copy cat answer.
Therapy this afternoon and the rest of the week.

ABC's

So, as I mentioned in my last post, Emma is really picking up on her letter identification. She is impressing me with it, really. The last week we've done several things. On Emma's birthday we made her a princess crown with the foamy stickers and then we decorated other things with the stickers also. Great fine motor practice to peel the paper off the back and Alex was picking out letters to spell her name. One problem I am noticing is that while she always gets all the letters, they are sometimes backwards. I think that is normal, right? I just try to correct her and remind her that they go from left to right. She's been working in her workbooks tracing letters and we've had a lot of fun with the DoodlePros that Emma got for her birthday. We write a letter and then think of a word that starts with it, then they want me to draw a picture of it. That is interesting sometimes... but they seem satisfied with my art. We've done their speech homework... practicing past tense and using the pronoun 'she' and also sequencing events. We've continued talking about Spring and drawing suns, flowers, grass, trees, rain, etc. We have had fun getting to play outside lately, but now it is cooler and rainy and we are stuck inside. Nonnie got Emma garden tools and seeds for her birthday, so we are planning a gardening day sometime soon. On Saturday we are going to the UofA horse festival with Nonnie. The girls have been around horses a lot in their life, but it is great to see them in different situations and realize that they are used and appreciated in so many different ways. Tomorrow we are going to the DaySpring movie at the theater here in Siloam, they have quite a few friends that will be there also.

Lots of stuff

I've slacked on blogging, but we haven't been slacking on learning. We took a trip to Arizona to see Casey on the Babbitt Ranch. Before we left we put up the map poster of North America and put a push pin where we live and where we were going and talked about all the states we would have to drive through to get there. I pointed out every time we came into a new state and we even stopped in Texas and took this picture.

One thing we seemed to talk a lot about was how the mountains changed as we drove across the country. Alex was really interested in that. She would say, "Oh mommy! Look at that mountain! It beautiful!"
The girls had a great time on the ranch. They got to help feed the horses and calves, ride the horses, pet the horses, play in the dirt & rocks, meet some other cowboys & watch them work the colts, and ride around the ranch in the pick up truck.
We visited the Grand Canyon while we were there. Instead of getting into the science of how the it came to be, I just asked Alex who made the Grand Canyon. "God did!" Yep, that sums it up. We can talk about the technicalities like erosion, etc. when they get older.
In the van they had lots of time to watch movies. In addition to HSM3, Horton & The Little Mermaid... they also watch The Letter Factory & Sesame Street ABC's.
Back home we have been going with the flow and adjusting to the time change. One morning we made mosaic pictures with construction paper and glue sticks. We would paint (with the glue stick) on a shape or letter and they would place the little paper pieces. Emma made the letter Z, a circle, a flower and the sun. Alex made a letter R, a triangle, a flower and a sun. The letters were to practice the ones they have a little more trouble with, the shapes were mainly for Emma's benefit, and the flower and sun were because spring is coming. We talked about all of those things as we worked.
Carrie found some great Sesame Street board books at Target for a dollar, and we have had fun with those the last few days. We have read the books together, but the girls look at them a lot on their own also. I noticed Alex reading to herself the other day and looking for shapes in our living room that she was looking at in the book. "Hmmm... that a square...." that a circle..."
Lots of learning seems to be taking place in the bathtub lately. The girls got bathtub crayons for Christmas and we've been playing with them often. We write letters, peoples, names, shapes, etc. and draw animals, people, houses, flowers, etc. The girls have one request after another and we just draw and write and until the water is too cold and they have to get out. It is also good for them to practice writing on the wall (like a dry erase or chalk board) because it develops their fine motor skills. They can't lean their weight on anything when they write on the wall and it takes more body control.
Alex makes it easy to do so much because she is curious. "Let's do this... What this letter?... What this say?..." Seems like we are identifying letters and sounding out words wherever we go. She can't sound anything out on her own yet, but identifying the letters and understanding that together the letters make words is progress.

New week

Drew was home this weekend, we were sad to see him leave yesterday afternoon. This morning we spent some time with new workbooks that Peg gave us. I worked with both the girls on same/different and matching. Alex does great with this, Emma is still learning. One thing that was hard for even Alex was direction. That is, identifying which object was going a different direction. We got tired and frustrated before we really got into letter identification, but Emma did something that showed me she is learning. She was pointing out letters (not accurately identifying, but still) and she got to a lower case 'g' and said, "That a little letter". She's getting there.
Therapy this afternoon.

Lessons

The last 4 weeks have been full of craziness. While we did go several weeks lacking formal school work, there was much in the way of life lessons. Drew was home with us and we took Alex the Kansas City to the hospital. She knows that God made her special and the doctors help us take care of her. How much more simplistic and truthful can it get?
While in KC we visited a children's museum, Wonderscope. I highly recommend it to anyone in the area with young children. Lots of manipulatives, hands on activities and fun!
Shopping in the 'market'

Stacking

turning

water fun

face painting. They wanted to be kitty cats

in the 'doctor office' putting together a skeleton

Upon coming home from KC we entered the ravage of the ice storm. Lots of clean up and Drew's buddies came to help. Stacey's family came for the weekend and his two boys and our two girls had a blast playing.
The following Sunday my grandma took a turn for the worse and the next week was spent with family. The girls were very much a part of the process. They were part of grandma's life and they were part of her dying. They were with us in the room when she died and know that grandma went to heaven. They attended the funeral also.
They attended therapy as regular as possible through all of these things.
Drew went back to Ft. Sill yesterday and today we picked up with our normal routine. This morning we played the Candy Land shape game. They love it and it is great for matching shapes & colors, taking turns, fine motor skills and competition. Then we played Elefun and tried to catch butterflies with our nets. Last, we played with the little bears and practiced sorting by colors, making patterns and some simple addition. Therapy this afternoon.

Barack Obama

We did our very best to watch the inauguration. I know that they cannot fully comprehend it, I'm not sure than any of us can, but I felt it was important. They went with me to vote in the fall and I explained that when we voted for the president this is the man that the people chose. So, he gets to 'be in charge' of America. It turned out that our main focus was remembering his name. I want them to know the answer when asked, "Who is the president of the United States of America?" So, we went over that a lot. Now Emma is walking around the house saying, "Barack Obama! Barack Obama!" We listened to the prayer, the oath and as much of the speech as they could handle. History in the making. I hope they have at least some recollection of all this as they grow.
Off to therapy, they each have a long day of therapy today.

Great Day

We had a really great day today. We did nothing exceptional, but I have more energy today than I can remember having in a very long time and that makes a difference. The girls have played, not without conflict, but contently. This morning we sat in the living room floor and played with flash cards. We worked on letter recognition and phonics, number recognition and counting, and opposites. I found myself working on shapes with Emma a lot today. The other day we got each of them a lap desk at Hobby Lobby. They LOVE them and this evening we again sat in the living room floor together. Emma and I wrote letters, spelled names, drew & identified shapes, and drew stick people. Alex paid some attention to this as she worked diligently on her own notebook. Kirsten got her a HSM stationary set for her birthday and she was busy working in her notebook with her pencil and ruler. I watched as she used the ruler to draw straight lines and then used her eraser on those pencil lines. I like watching her explore and create on her own. Emma wants me to color, but doesn't want to do much drawing on her own. Sometimes I hold her hand in mine and we write or draw together. I guess I will keep encouraging. Alex had PT this afternoon and Emma had OT. Daryl (OT) is reluctant to splint either of them for their fisted hands because they are both able to open those fingers on their own. They just choose to have them fisted most of the time. I will discuss this with the neurologist when we take Alex in February.

Other stuff

I've failed to blog on the other things we've been working on. We go over the girls speech homework at least a couple of times a week. We are working on specific concepts with Emma such as... above/below, front/behind, in/out, etc. I'm doing analogies with with both girls. Ex. My sweater is soft, but a rock is _____. And so on. Alex is doing great with plurals and possessives, in individually and we are getting better in sentence form. She is also working on using the correct pronouns... he/she/they. Alex is also working on sequencing (first, second, third, fourth, etc.) and on the concept of all/some/none. When we read books I try to take the time to ask other questions. Such as, I spy something that is yellow and square... then let her find it. Looking for more than one characteristic takes more patience than just picking the first yellow thing she sees. I know that Heidi (speech therapist) works on predicting story lines with her. I have a harder time doing this because she knows all of our books so well. I really need to get some new books.
I was wearing a GAP sweatshirt today and Emma was pointing out the letters and saying, "A, B, C..." So, I pointed her finger to each letter... "G... A... P" Alex was interested by this time and so we said the sounds that each letter makes and then said the word. We do this a lot with different words we come across. Good thing we are a GAP kind of family and not Tommy Hilfiger! That would be much harder to sound out!

Play-Doh

Seems we've done more with Play-Doh this week than anything else. The girls got a canister of play-doh and toys for Christmas and we've had a lot of fun with it. Of course it is more developmental work than academic, but important just the same. I'm trying to encourage Alex to use her right hand more, she keeps it curled up most of the time and doesn't use it much. Emma really started getting independent and using the tools herself. Oh, and it was fun.
We also had some craft stuff from Uncle Pat for Christmas that we've played with. Pipe cleaners, foam stickers, googly eyes, pompoms, etc. We used the foam letters to spell their names and they picked other stickers to decorate with. They each also made a silly face with the supplies and we hung them all in the living room. I wouldn't say that they are very independently creative with this stuff, not in the sense of coming up with things to create. But, we are working on it.
There has been no occupational therapy this week because Daryl was out, but they did have speech and physical therapy. They also spent a morning with Lisa and the girls to play while I got my hair done. Nonnie came to stay one evening with them and Courtney came the next evening so I could attend church meetings. Last night we went to Fun City with Kyle, Misty, Kayla & Braeden and the kids seemed to have a good time. There has definitely been a lot of social time this week and today we are recovering from it all!

Field Trips & more

When we went to Ft. Sill to stay with Drew we has some great 'field trips'. We visited Geronimo's grave. It was the first time we had really talked about Native Americans. We just took in the sites and I explained that a long time ago the Native Americans lived in the United States before we did and that Geronimo was a famous Native American.

We also visited the conservation area at Ft. Sill. They had a bobcat, a wolf, a turkey and birds. The girls were excited to see the animals but we were careful to explain that these kind of animals live in the wild and are not people's pets, so we have to keep our hands to ourselves. I also explained to them that they were living here so that they could be taken care of and be safe.

We also went back to Prairie Dog Town. We've been before, but always enjoy going back. We have learned that if we sit quietly and be respectful that they trust us more and will come very close. This time we fed them goldfish crackers and had lots of little critter friends.

Lastly we went up on Mt. Scott. It is so beautiful and you can see so much. We got out long enough to take a few pictures, but it was really cold and windy. Alex really took to the mountains this trip. As we were driving through the wildlife refuge she kept saying, "There's a mountain! There's another one! That mountain big!" We talked about how beautiful they were and I asked her who made the mountains. "GOD did!" I love that they know that.

So, back at home we had a fairly normal week back at therapy. Not much formal school stuff, but Alex practiced tracing letters in her workbook on her own yesterday. This afternoon we colored on a big poster board and drew pictures. Shapes, people, letters, names, etc.
This morning we went to Misty's to play with the kiddos. They all played and although Emma was a pill they seemed to have a good time. Church and Sunday School tomorrow.