Another Speech Update

We had a wonderful weekend filled with LOTS of family visiting for E's dedication at our church. Before I forget, I want to share with you that we had a meeting to plan M's time remaining with Early Intervention before she turns three (in October). You might remember that we were quite concerned that she might lose services because with the evaluation that was used for her, she scored average, even on speech. You can read about those problems here. Thanks to the dedication of our therapists, M will continue receiving speech therapy 2 times a week and her teacher will come once a week. We decided to stop occupational therapy since it was only once a month and at this point, not super effective. A huge factor in this was M's speech therapist writing an "informed clinical opinion" to add on to the evaluation. It made it very clear that though her scores were average, she is not understandable, and she is not consistent with errors. (For example she will say "doom," "poon,", and "poom." All mean the word "spoon." The next big step is to get three evaluations from the IU. We actually had one today for occupational therapy. Another for a general eval is scheduled. The speech eval has not been scheduled yet. (This is quite upsetting to me because if M is going to preschool, I want to have time to prepare her. There is no sense changing bedtime without good reason. We truly have NO idea what will happen, but we hope she'll be going to the speech and language classroom with the developmental preschool.)

SSSSSnake!

This snake was so much fun to make! We modeled it after Ramblings of a Crazy Woman's snake. We colored, cut a spiral, added eyes and a tongue! So simple and easy! A while ago I made some foam sewing cards. I kept the hole punches. I used two red ones for the eyes instead of googley eyes. They stay on better than googley eyes. This was part of our study on Adam and Eve.

Crayons

So in an attempt for some open-ended art...I let M choose her paper and go to town with her crayons. Well, her "going to town" didnt' last long. She isn't really into just drawing. Maybe one day. But not today (or any time soon). She barely added to what you see here. So we turned it over. She asked me to draw a rainbow. She colored it pretty well. Teaching My Little Bookworm is a wonderful resource for GOOD crafty ideas for children, and she is wonderful at connecting them to books, too. Do check it out! Also, if you are so inclined, participate in the open ended art-crayons this week. By doing so last week, I won some fall colored tissue paper! Also go there to see what others are doing with crayons...they're way better than this!

Little Box

This began as a simple, unfinished box. (The pencil is there to show size.)

First I covered it in green paint that I had mixed. I'm not a big fan of painted wood (especially in pastel colors), so my solution was to break up the green. I dry-brushed a bright/dark blue on the green.

To dry-brush, I dipped the brush in the blue paint. Then I removed most of the paint on a paper towel. Then I lightly touched the brush to the box over and over again. It was fun for me.

The finishing touch required the help of my Craft Night friends at church. They bring a Cricut machine to cut letters each time we get together. I used the Cricut to cut the "M." I really liked the boxed effect. (It's all one piece.)

I used Mod Podge for the first time to attach the "M." I used a sponge brush, brushing along the grain of the wood, to cover the top with Mod Podge. I carefully placed the "M" on the box, using a toothpick to adjust it a bit. Then I placed a couple more layers of Mod Podge on the top.

Inside are teeny, tiny little hair clips for M's hair.

If you liked this project, stay tuned later this week for another, but very different, personalized clip holder.

Creation

Tot School is typically less structured than what I'm sharing, but I still wanted to share! Tot school is typically just learning through play. Our weeks of Creation were fun, and we played with a lot more toys and speech activities than Creation activities, but I like the idea of putting my Creation thoughts together in a post. Meghan is 34 months old. We've spent the past two weeks talking about how God created the world in seven days. This was a lot of fun for M and me. We use Hubbard's Cupboard for the base, but use very little of the ideas. We focused on the verse Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. We sang it...well, I sang it. M attempted to fill in a few words. Though she is not capable of singing, she would ask for more. (I'm thankful she has no clue how horribly I sing!) This is a mini-Creation book that M colored and read. We also made binoculars to go for a walk to see all of God's creation. We mostly saw rocks, plants, and trees. We did see a few animals and friends, too though. A note here: Super glue made them much sturdier. They were also reinforced with packaging tape. We played a game putting animals in the sea or sky. (FYI, I printed them smaller than the game is made to save ink. Yes, I am cheap like that.) I purposefully made sugar cookies for this little study of creation. As it turned out the animal cookie cutters were quite large, so M only iced the much smaller heart cookies. It wasn't a bad idea though, just not as practical as I would have liked. We also ate Oreo cookies to show the dark and light like God made. We had fun with our moon magic, too. This week we'll be talking about Adam and Eve...I'm looking forward to the challenge. See others' Tot School ideas here.

Grandma Rabbitty's Visit (Review)

This past weekend while Derek's mom was visiting we found this book at the library. We checked it out (along with 18 others). Grandma Rabbitty's Visit by Barry Smith is a delightful book for toddlers. Its illustrations are vivid and have a variety of vehicles that children love in it. Some of them are a bus, ice cream truck, steam roller, and sports car. The book is also filled with a wide range of sounds that kids like to imitate. Even M was able to do this! It is not a board book, but it has the thick, durable pages that make the book last and last. Grandma Rabbitty's Visit begins with the "bring, bring" of the telephone. Grandma calls to say she's on her way for a visit. The bunny family spends the day listening to the sounds of the cars and trucks passing by wondering if each sound will bring Grandma Rabbitty. The illustrations show the family in their living room with a large window that has a wonderful view of the street and all the vehicles passing. Grandma Rabbitty finally arrives with a "vroom-vroom-vroom"-on a motorcycle! (The book calls it a motorbike.) M has enjoyed this book a great deal, and has requested it time after time. The best part is that my mom does ride (not drive) a motorcycle! How sweet! I've noticed that when books try to not stereotype, it comes off as too strong. Grandma Rabbitty's Visit is a wonderful surprise, but not because it isn't stereotypical, but because it's just plain sweet that Grandma has finally arrived. Even if your child's grandma doesn't tote a motorcycle helmet, this is still a great book for a toddler! Enjoy!

Speech Update

M is just two months away from her third birthday! WOW! She has come so far! First, we have an Early Intervention meeting scheduled for next week to see how her services will change. It's an annual meeting, and a follow up to the evaluation she had a few weeks ago that concerned me so much. It was explained to me that since the SLP, special education/early childhood teacher, and M's parents all want services to continue, they probably will. So I'm not so concerned now. Thinking of the future (the end of October) when she turns three, we have two of three evaluations scheduled for early September. These evals will lead to an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) that will determine what services M will receive from the Intermediate Unit. We are waiting for the third evaluation to be scheduled. Hopefully we get the call soon. M is making wonderful progress despite the apraxia. She said, "No. E (brother's nickname). Eat. Mama. Shoe." Five words! She also started adding -ing to words by telling her brother, "No talking." He was just jabbering in the car. A little. Since then she has added -ing to other words too! It's wonderful to hear. M is putting three words together at least once a day, too. Any time she has a longer sentence "mommy", "please", and/or "more" are usually used. M will say "thank you" and "bless you" at appropriate times! The words are very high-pitched and not understandable (without context), but they are there! Her vocabulary, in general, is growing all the time too. We're excited for all the new words!